People sometimes ask what they actually get when they order a print. A file goes to a lab, a tube shows up at your door, done? Not here. I filmed a few minutes of me framing a print so you can actually see it.
This is the part of the work most, including myself, often take for granted. There is taking the photograph, making the fine art print, but it's not truly a work of art until it is matted and framed. This is the gap that bridges having something that lives on your phone to something that you will cherish forever.
The mat is important
To have a mat, or not to have a mat, is an artistic choice. But it plays an unsung hero role: it holds the print flat, keeps the surface off the glass, and gives the image room to sit in the frame without crowding. Word to the wise: you never want the print to touch the glass. When I cut mats by hand I use a bevel cutter, measure twice, and check every corner before the print goes anywhere near it.
The gloves are not for show either. Cotton keeps skin oils off the paper. A fingerprint on a matte surface like Photo Rag does not come off.
Paper, signature, certificate
My prints go on Hahnemühle papers. Open editions on Photo Rag, the limited editions on Baryta. Both are heavy, archival, and chosen because of how they hold blacks. I have written before about what the paper does to a photograph.
Every print is hand-signed and ships with a certificate of authenticity. Each one is made to order, which is why delivery takes a few weeks. Nothing sits in a warehouse.
Where the prints live
The limited editions are on this site. Editions of 15, printed at 16 inches on the shortest side, signed and numbered.
Selected images are also available as smaller open edition prints in my Etsy shop. Same papers, same hands, same signature, at a friendlier price for a first print.
Either way, what arrives is the thing you saw in the video. Cut, fitted, signed, and checked at this table before it leaves.