Drymounting a Large Autographed Photo? A No-No?
 

Here's a question for the experts on the board... I recently had a large format (26"x38") photograph autographed by an athlete. The photograph was one I had made using an online professional developer - York Photo - with a matte finish. It's printed on large format photo paper. I then had the athlete sign the large photograph with a black Uni paint pen. The photograph and signature look amazing, and I'd really like to prepare the item for personal display. While value isn't significant (maybe $100), I certainly don't want to ruin the piece as it was something I had signed in person and is not replaceable (plus the athlete took time putting a mammoth - were talking 15" - signature on the item as he was very impressed with the photograph's size)!

Here's my questions - how would you prepare the photograph for display? I'm fearful that framing, alone, will cause the photograph to buckle and get wavy, especially given its size. Also, the photograph was printed and shipped rolled, so it already wants to curl on its own.

Is drymounting a viable option? Putting aside the irreversible nature of drymounting, my bigger concern is whether the heat involved will hurt the photograph, itself, or more importantly, the paint pen signature? Has anyone ever drymounted an autographed photo before? How were the results? Any damage?

Does anyone have other ideas, especially given the size and medium (and the fact the photograph is already signed)?

Thanks so much!

I recently purchased a couple of dry mounted signed photos (Mantle and DiMaggio) both larger than 16x20. They were mounted prior to me buying them. One issue was they were mounted on foam core. The issue was foam core got bent and now there is a crease in the Mantle photo that cannot be smoothed out because of the backing. I still bought them both because large signed photos of both guys are difficult, but wishing I could do something about that crease in Mantle. If anyone reading this has any suggestions I'm all ears. Take care, Jason

In the 10 years I was at Steiner, we dry mounted tens of thousands of photographs to foam core backing. Never had issues with damage, just ensure whoever is running the dry mount machine covers the front face of the photo when they dry mount it so nothing gets on to the photo.

Talk to someone who restores/conserves movie posters. They almost always back the fragile paper posters as part of the conservation-- in part to protect it and in part to make it ready/sturdy for display--, and will likely know. A vintage movie poster is probably much more fragile and delicate than a photo.

I am an art collector and personally if someone dry-mounted one of my prints I would sue them for the value and the mental duress they caused me.

I had a crappy mall framer do that to me in the early nineties and that print would be worth 2k more had that not happened. :mad:

Use archival removable linen tape from a framer that handles expensive pieces. The glue will not yellow is acid free and removable.

Poster collectors will often be fine with linen backing, but it is still restoration and anything pristine and untouched will always be worth more than pristine and touched. Resto work is great when needed to make it presentable. In art and posters dry-matting completely destroys the value of the piece. To remove the piece for sale it will cost roughly 400 dollars to have a restorer remove the item but often the damage is still noticeable.

Look on the internet for art restorers, they should be able to remove them and likely flatten the photo also.

Personally, I think you would be fine dry matting it. Why I think it's okay in your case is that it's not a vintage poster where it would ruin the raw, original state of the piece (kind of like the art example). If I see a vintage poster that's been dry matted, I skip over it because it just ruins the appeal for me (unless it was absolutely necessary to preserve it)! Since yours is a modern photograph that wouldn't have much value alone, it would actually benefit to have it dry matted IMO for display!

Thanks so much for the suggestions/advice so far!

I would use archival mounting tape and mount it along the top center to a foam core backer. This way, it will hang down and not get wavy, but you can remove it from the backer if you ever want to.

One thing and speaking as a photo person, large modern photos are often shipped rolled these days, and I don't think that causes any issues when it's rolled flat. I've purchased and shipped photos rolled (just modern, never done it with an antique). They usually flatten out fine.

Personally, I would see if you could get it matted and framed as is and see if it works. It might.

Thanks for all the help guys. As a bit of an update, I went to my frame shop today (I live in NYC, so I used 567 Framing), and after speaking with them for about 30 minutes on choices, we went with cold press mounting on an acid-free Sintra (PVC like substrate) with archival mount. This should protect the photograph and keep it flat, take out any creases currently in it, and be almost 0% risk of harming the signature.

After the mounting, it will be placed in frame.

I'll keep people posted as to how the finished product comes out.