[clayne]

A print not finished and hung is kind of like a piece of music not played. That is the performance. While I certainly can relate to the process and materials, a photograph is to be looked at. The content is more important than the form--although the form imparts qualities to the content.

Disagree. This is equating prints/photographs as ultimately vessels of visual consumption.

One could play devil's advocate and say that if the photograph is seen at all, then that's enough. But to be reasonable, I think round-tabling an archive box of 5x7 prints with friends or other photographers is a heck of a lot more nourishing to the soul then staring at a 16x20 on the wall.

Saying an unmounted print is like unplayed music is like saying a contact sheet has no point or is "unsung" because it's a collection of frames of no ultimate destination. Even the contact sheet itself has fundamental meaning behind it, mounted or not.