This an update to my first article (written 4 months ago).
After a few months ruminating on my reorganisation of my photography efforts into a project based approach, I’ve also reorganised some of my thoughts on different hardcopy output options. In the original article, I included a suggestion to use A4 portfolio archive boxes as a store for loose prints. My original thinking was that this would be the lowest priority option because I was thinking about the option mainly in terms of the storage of random photos that weren’t deemed suitable for a posher treatment (matting, or framing for example).
After a few months additional cogitation I’ve decided to raise the priority of this method of storage and display. The reason is the shift to project working: the A4 loose print storage option is actually ideally suited as the first choice for compiling portfolios, rather than an afterthought, reserving the posher methods for those exclusive ‘best’ photos.
The A4 storage box is the cheapest option, so the most economical for bulk print collections. It is also neat and tidy enough with its Wibalin finish that with a bit of bling added in the form of a portfolio title sheet and a project ‘statement of intent’ page on top of the prints, you have a smart way of presenting coherent portfolios/projects containing lots of prints. These A4 boxes come in different depths, with the slimmer 25mm deep versions the obvious choice for unmounted prints. There are similar A3 and A2 storage boxes available, so if you wanted to up the ante, you could move up to a larger size of print.
I’m now thinking of my storage/display options in the following hierarchy:
- Edited electronic images organised and metadata tagged by project collection in my raw file library
- A sample of the best images uploaded to my website as a project portfolio gallery
- A single page multi image grid portfolio of small prints (eg 9) to be framed in a standard 16″x16″ square frame for wall hanging. These act as project summary portfolios in a convenient single frame and can be swapped around the modest hanging space available in my small house
- A collection of the better images printed to A4, each print individually titled and stored in a dedicated shallow A4 portfolio archive box with a project title page and a statement of intent page. These will act as my primary project hardcopy option
- A deeper A4 print archive box of 10-12 selected prints from the project that have been nicely matted, presented as a single portfolio. Matted prints have more impact in the hand and the deeper boxes have the capacity for a panel of this number of mounted prints
- An A2 print archive box of 10-15 mounted 12″ x 12″ prints for each project (eg my LRPS panel). These prints are framing-ready for the standard sized 16″x16″ square frames I intend to use for my stairwell wall personal gallery space. Done this way, different gallery panels can be swapped in and out of the frames for display in the gallery space as desired and be stored away in the large archive boxes when not on display.
- A gallery of 15 12″x12″ prints matted and framed in 16″x16″ frames and hung in 3 rows of 5 frames in my stairwell personal gallery at home
Any left over portfolio prints deemed not good enough for a special treatment can just be stored loose in a deep A4 archive box as I originally planned.
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