I believe in the power of surrounding myself with personal and tangible objects, in film and prints and freeing photography from the constraints of a computer screen.
Yet I realized a few months ago that, while my flickr and tumblr are filled with photographs from hundreds of rolls of film, my home had none of my photographic prints on display.
Shameful.
I set out to remedy the problem and - viola - I now have a gallery wall of my own prints in my hallway. This is only the beginning; I plan to continue adding on until the entire wall is filled.
These are all photographs featuring my travels and the people I love, taken with my film cameras, mostly my Rollei TLR and Nikon FM2, plus a couple Mamiya 645 and Holga. I printed several of the B&W photographs myself in the darkroom and the rest I ordered through Richard Photo Lab (beautiful work!) using scanned negatives.
Acquiring the frames was expensive: one archival quality matted frame is not much, but multiply that number by fifteen and the costs add up. I had to accept this as a longterm investment in my home and my art. The best quality and value combination I found was American Frame kits, assembly required.
Designing the wall layout was such a challenge for me that I left the frames stacked on the floor for three months. My heartfelt thanks to my dear friend Trisha who, while visiting from Nashville, created the pattern and helped me hang all the frames in one morning.
In summary, here is what you need to create your own gallery: wall space, prints, frames (preferably archival and matted), a design, a Trisha, frame hangers, wire, a hammer, and a free morning. :)
Free those photographs.
