It's easely done...

Over on The Online Photographer, there is a nice post by Barry F. Margolius about using an extremely low-tech piece of equipment; an easel.

In his words: "…it became clear that it was very hard to evaluate/enjoy these prints. One day they looked great, the next day they looked very flawed. In a moment of inspiration, I walked down the block to the art store and bought an artist's easel: black aluminum, not ugly but not particularly attractive. I just stood it up in the corner of my living room. Now I can easily (no pun intended) display my latest print du jour. Then I could live with it for a few days and decide if I liked it—and sometimes even why I liked it. The time allows me to decide if I like a print enough to frame it, and how I want to frame it, and even where I might want to hang it."

This is an issue that has plagued me (and I am sure many other photographers) for some time. Do I hang up my work? Which ones? Can I justify the cost of framing something that I might not like in a few days/weeks/months time?

Some time back I did a series of portraits of friends who visited my home (this was in the days of ‘wet’ photography). I printed everyone exactly the same and also had access to a retired family friend who did picture framing as a hobby. I was able to get a series of frames exactly the same to do a mass hanging.

The down side is that these frames, or certainly not the matts, are not re-usable, having been built for a specific purpose.

Since moving to my current place, I have wanted a method by which I can put my new digital prints up on the wall cheaply and easily so I can change them regularly. After reading about and rejecting several methods as being too expensive or cumbersome, I hit upon the idea of using artist’s canvasses. The low quality ones can be purchased in a range of sizes for not a lot of money (about $20 each for the ones I settled on).

I bought several in different sizes before deciding on the one that A3 prints looked fine in both portrait and landscape mode. A trial run also showed that, although the canvasses were off-white, they were still too stark for the prints. A quick trip to the local hardware shop and a sample point of a neutral grey paint fixed that. I now have five canvasses hanging on a long wall.

To display a new print, I just line it up and pin it through the corners with white map pins; quick and easy to do. This is not an ideal method. From certain angles the light reflects badly off the prints and it does show that the prints aren't fixed firmly and flat against the canvas. But it is quick, cheap, simple and it will do until I find one or two that I want to frame and hang more permanently.