Prints and frames and portraits

I got the proofs from West Coast Imaging, and I’m pretty sure I’m going with the Crane Museo Silver Rag. The Hahnemühle FineArt Pearl is another serious possibility, and the Hahnemühle Photo Rag is close in line behind that. (The two Chromira prints on Fuji papers—the Fujichrome Supergloss and the Fujiflex Crystal Archive—weren’t right for me at all.) I’m generally a fan of matte papers, and I thought the Hahnemühle Photo Rag would’ve been my favorite, but there’s a texture to it that I find distracting. The two pearl papers are really nice—the Crane one is slightly creamier, so the whites aren’t as bright white as they are on the Hahnemühle, which is sort of the only question in my mind: Which do I prefer?

I haven’t gotten in touch with any framers yet. I have a list of a few places in L.A. I need to visit, not only to see what’s out there, but to get price quotes. I can’t afford to be any more in debt than I am right now, so I need to find someplace that’ll do a good job for as little money as possible. At least one place on my list is, I’m sure, beyond my budget. They make beautiful wood frames, though, with equally beautiful shipping crates to send your work in. For now, cardboard boxes and lots of bubble wrap is going to have to do.

Meanwhile, I had the opportunity to have my portfolio reviewed by someone whose opinion about photography I respect, and it was a great experience. I learned so much about my work, not only based on suggestions he had for directions I could go with it, but also in terms of the few things he said that I disagreed with: When I disagreed with him, it helped me refine, for myself, what I believe and why. The main point, for me, was that I better defined what the In Store project is about. It’s not about the buildings where we store our stuff (although they are a part of it); instead, it’s about what we store and why. The buildings are what they are, and I’m pleased with some of the photographs I’ve taken of them. But the project really came alive for me when I was able to see beyond the walls and doors, and photograph the stuff itself (I’m thinking, in particular, of the images of the trophy). I learned in the portfolio review that I could still use the images of the buildings, as sort of a framework for the rest of the project.

So basically, much of what I’ve done so far is lay the foundation. Now I need to get inside the places and photograph their contents. It’s possible I’ll take portraits of people with their stuff, an idea I entertained a while back and then dismissed (mainly, I think, because photographing people scares the shit out of me). Facing that fear of making portraits is something I need to do. It’s one thing not to go in a particular direction because you’ve decided it’s not right for the project; it’s another not to go there because you’re afraid.

I have a lot more work ahead of me—which is good, because I’m in love with this project (and that’s not an exaggeration).

The meet cute

When Ian and Star asked me to be in a show, my head was in that isn’t-it-cool-that-I-have-my-first-show space. But very soon after, I realized that I needed to get my act together. We decided on the images that I would show, and then I had to get them ready. In a class at JDPW, the amazing Aline Smithson recommended that, as a way to keep costs down when you’re just starting to get your work shown in galleries, you do the matting and framing yourself. I followed her suggestion, printed my own archival pigment prints on my Epson Stylus PHOTO R2400 at 12 x 18 inches, matted them using precut archival mats from Light Impressions, and framed them using black metal gallery frames from Dick Blick.

When I was done framing the eight images for the Shotgun Space show, and the three images for the White Wall Collective show, I told my boyfriend that I never wanted to frame my own work again. It wasn’t that the matting and framing was difficult—after the first one, it was actually pretty easy—and they looked good. But what occurred to me was that, even though Aline was right (it was an incredibly cost-effective way of doing it—I was able to print, mat, and frame each image for around $20), I felt as though I hadn’t followed through as well as I could have.

It reminded me of knitting. It’s been a while, but I used to knit pretty often, and I was really good all the way up until the finishing—the part where you have to sew together all the pieces. I hated the finishing part, and I never got good at it, because by that point I was just so damn impatient and ready to be done that I rushed through it. And that’s why my sweaters didn’t look half as good as Diane de Avalle-Arce’s sweaters did—well, that and the fact that Diane is the kind of woman who milks her own goats to make her own cheese and is inherently a better knitter than I am.

I didn’t care that much about knitting, so my lack of finishing skills wasn’t that big of a deal. But in case you hadn’t noticed, I do care about photography—and somehow the thought of spending all that time and effort working to make good photographs and editing them until they were just right, only to end up printing at a size that I chose because it’s what I could print myself and frame on the cheap . . . that just didn’t sit well with me.

So I recently began the process of looking at print services—more specifically, master printers, people who spend as much time getting the print just right as I spend getting the photo just right. I don’t have the kind of money to go to a place like Laumont, and I started looking around at places in L.A. and elsewhere. That’s when I came across West Coast Imaging. Their site is really clear, and they seemed like they might be a good fit for me. So I e-mailed them with a few questions on Wednesday night, and first thing Thursday morning I got a callback from Terrance Reimer, a custom printmaker. We connected this morning and talked for 45 minutes, and I knew he was the guy (or at least the printmaker) for me. He was easy to talk to, happy to answer questions, passionate about photography, and enthused about my work, plus a photographer himself.

Today I uploaded images for him, and he’s going to print some free 8-x-10 proofs for me—two from the Chromira (one on Fujichrome Supergloss paper, and the other on Fujiflex Crystal Archive) and three from the Epson Stylus Pro 9800 (one on Crane Museo Silver Rag; one on Hahnemühle Photo Rag; and the third on Hahnemühle FineArt Pearl). I should have them in a week or two. And now I feel much better prepared. I can start thinking more seriously about the size that I want to print—right now I’m thinking of doing one edition at 20 x 30 inches, and maybe another edition at 30 x 45 inches.

Next step: Find a framer I can work with long-term. I think I’ll start by going in to Santa Monica and talking with the people at Allan Jeffries. I’ve had a couple things framed there in the past and been really happy with their work.

They should have Match.com for photographers, printers, and framers. eHarmony would be asking too much.