Storing your prints

One reason I print is to fill the fifteen or so frames hung all over my house. These frames server two purposes: they decorate the house with frequently refreshed content and they allow me to live with my pictures to see in each case if the affair is going to be permanent or was just an infatuation.

But to date I have over two hundred 13x19 inch and larger final prints, only a few of which can hang on the wall at any one time. What to do with the rest? The simplest option would be to stick them in empty paper boxes. The problem is that the surface of an inkjet print is very fragile and scuffs at the slightest abrasion. So, the next simplest option is to insert each print in a polypropelene sleeve, then stuff the lot into empty paper boxes. Problem is that the combination of print and sleeve is much thicker than print alone, so one quickly runs out of empty boxes. No problem: find an empty corrugated cardboard box of appropriate proportions, put the sleeved prints in it, and shove the box in a corner.

Fig 1. print box.

A somewhat more useful solution for storing sleeved prints can be seen in Fig 1. I took several scrap pieces of foam core (corrugated cardboard would work as well), cut them to make a box about 14x19.5x6 inches, and fastened them together using duct tape. This arrangement is somewhat more presentable and allows one to more easily browse through and locate a print. (Note: you'll need considerably more duct tape if you want to fill the box more than about 2/3 full.)

Fig 2. Pile of Profolios (Evolution on top).

About a year ago, however, I finally found a local source for 13x19 and 18x24 Itoya Art Profolios. These are relatively inexpensive portfolios/albums with 24 bound sleeves per book, thereby permitting the storage and/or display of 48 prints each. The Profolio was originally designed with painted art, such as watercolours, in mind. The sleeves have an anti-reflective texture that is a nice compromise between clarity and glare reduction. The downside, as with all glare reduction, is that those inky blacks you worked so hard to achieve are no longer truly black. Not an issue if you're only storing your prints; but definitely an issue if you want to show them off.

Clearly, the Itoya folk have not been oblivious to the fact that an increasing percentage of their sales has been coming from digital photographers. First, they introduced a 13x19 option (a paper size only used by inkjet paper manufacturers). Next, they redesigned their Profolio product line to create the Art Profolio Evolution series. They seem to have made note of every niggling little criticism of the original Profolio design they ever had to bend an ear to and addressed every single one of them ... without increasing the price point.

The most obvious difference to the Evolution line is the classy black nylon cloth piping around the cover edges. This alone moves the product up into the realm of using it to show your prints to that bourgeois gallery owner you managed to buttonhole as s/he is just getting out of her/his Infiniti sedan. The clear labelling pocket on the spine is no more - I assume it just wasn't considered classy enough by those who know about such things. (I have mixed feelings about this, since I need an outside label to differentiate the half dozen portfolios I so far have. We'll see how gum labels hold up over time.) Inside, the sleeves are now crystal clear for the look that photographers everywhere love. An unexpected minor bonus: I find it easier to insert and remove prints from the non-matte sleeves; the texture of the original Profolios seemed to introduce a bit of friction.

Unfortunately, Itoya seems to be a North American product at this time: no metric A sizes are available for my friends in Euro land. Another line I'd dearly love to see from Itoya is a landscape, instead of portrait, layout; although I suspect this might require full stiffness of the covers or other non-trivial change, resulting in an altogether different price point.

Fig 3. Inside an Evolution.

Many photographers fantasize having a vanity press book of their prints lying casually on the home coffee table for visitors to discover. If you are among that number, try an Evolution Profolio on for size - it just might do the trick.