How can I hang my photographs?

July 25, 2009 8:49 AM

So I really like to take pictures, but I'm bored with framing them. What other cool ideas for mounting or backing large high quality printed photographs are there?

I've heard of people pouring some sort of shalaque over a photograph on wood, but I don't really know how to do it. Anybody got any ideas?

posted by wild like kudzu to media & arts (13 comments total)

My sister made homemade paper of various textures and color and developed the film onto her paper in a lab. She made paper by blending fabrics and other material in a blender then spreading the pulp on a screen until it dried. Some turned out awesome, while others didn't quite work out as she had planned.
posted by HotPatatta at 9:32 AM on July 25

Sometimes she spread the pulp in a thick layer (~1/4") and it was as firm as cardboard once dry.
posted by HotPatatta at 9:35 AM on July 25

I think you might mean shellac instead of "shalaque" - am I right? The spelling might help in your research.
posted by amtho at 9:37 AM on July 25

I think you might mean shellac instead of "shalaque"

Or maybe the key word is varnish.
posted by philip-random at 9:40 AM on July 25

Okay, let's try that one more time. Photo + Varnish = .
posted by philip-random at 9:42 AM on July 25

I recently saw an artist who had "framed" photos against the back of a large piece of glass --- no actual frame, just the glass. I don't remember it well, but there were a lot of neat ways of attaching --- in parts, there were old wood frames (differently sized) glued around the pictures. Some were clipped to the edge? And others were just taped on. It was really neat. I liked the framing as much as the photos themselves --- it was really creative and elegant, and let them put up a bunch of pictures at once, with relatively minimal material.
posted by puckish at 9:47 AM on July 25

What if you took found wood (or plaster, or cardboard, or anything flat that was bigger than your photos) and mounted the photos on that? You could cover the photos with some plexiglass from a hardware store and affix the plexiglass to the backing with some really little screws.
posted by brittafilter at 9:57 AM on July 25

Very shallow shadowboxes add depth (visually and physically), but it really depends on the photos. Try services near a university or art school for ideas or services, if students are their primary clientele the prices tend to be lower for the same quality you would have anywhere else. The framer's near the city's art & design school here have some really cool examples using all textured media, layers of glass and laminate; you have to see it to appreciate some of what they have come up with that really add to your art instead of only an outline. Taking in a photo and asking for suggestions is great too, I've found asking for some creative input is a welcomed change from selling stock plain frames and glass for the counter persons there.
posted by variella at 10:16 AM on July 25

Maybe put them in glass jars or bottles.
posted by Orchestra at 11:33 AM on July 25 [2 favorites]

Check out photojojo. They have a lot of ideas for alternatives to traditional picture frames.

Another very easy option is to buy deep mount gesso board and "glue" the photo on with modpodge or varnish or and encaustic mix of beeswax and resin.
posted by munichmaiden at 12:20 PM on July 25 [1 favorite]

At an art show I was recent at there was a photographer who used old multipane windows which had a different photograph in behind each of the panes of glass. This effected really worked well for a series of progression of images.
posted by mmascolino at 12:52 PM on July 25

Last year at an art fair I saw a few photographers were using a technique of prints mounted onto board (like, half inch to one inch thick, wood or particle board) and then coated with a protective laminate. This photographer refers to it as "flush mounting" but in Googling that term I find it's used for all kinds of other things. So I'm not sure exactly what this should be called. But if you look on this page you can see what the effect is like - it's a black board with a slight bevel edge around the photo. I believe I saw other photographers displaying works the same way but without the bevel.
posted by dnash at 3:04 PM on July 25

I've seen a lot of undergrad work work well either just under plain glass with 4 little metal clips (available cheap from the 'art store', and there are places to get glass cut for cheap, too), or work under glass but behind a bevel-cut matte of cardboard - all without a frame.

I really dig HotPatatta's experience (although I've never seen it done) of shellacing it on homemade paper. Perhaps in non-rectangular fashion. Maybe a collage or triptych or something.
posted by porpoise at 7:58 PM on July 25