Good handling

Excessive light, temperature or humidity levels, bad framing, pollution and contaminants, mishandling, pests and mold all cause Deterioration!

Never touch the surface of a print or film with your fingers. The oils on your skin will cause permanent damage. Wear clean cotton gloves while handling photographs, or wash your hands and handle by the edges only.

Avoid writing on the back of prints with pen or marker or using tape. Writing on the back of a print is acceptable, but use a very soft 3B pencil in the border area and make sure you put the print on a hard surface first.

Good Storage

Some commercial photo albums are unsuitable for preservation. Album pages should be made from good quality, acid-free paper and prints should be simply attached to the pages using archival photo corners.

Loose photographs should be stored flat, preferably in acid-free folders, envelopes or inert mylar or polyethylene envelopes. Then put your prints into acid-free cardboard boxes. Nice sturdy archival boxes and enclosures are available from conservation materials suppliers at a reasonable price.

Photographs should be stored in a clean, cool, dry place. with a temperature of 20 Celsius and a relative humidity of 50 percent or less. Attics, garages, cellars or bathrooms should be avoided.

Mounting and matting

It's not a great idea to use permanent mounting; it may depreciate the value. Also never mount a photograph directly to the mat board using head seal dry mount tissue. Although many photographs exist from the 1970s and prior, it is now not thought advisable for old photographs. Use hinge-mounting or reversible mounting.

Most materials used today are acid-free, but make sure to specify. Only use museum-quality, acid-free, lignin-free, rag mat board.

Don't do what they did in the old days and use standard sticky tape or blu tack to hold the print in place. These will go nice and yellow with age and cause staining - this is 100% guaranteed! Only archival-quality adhesive tapes should be used for matting. Recommended tapes include filmoplast and acid-free linen tape.

Make it look nice with expert framing or display. A window mat should always be placed between the print and the glass in a picture frame. The mat will act to prevent the print from sticking to the glass.

Don't ever use any glue!

Never glue or tape a photograph into place. It is also a good idea to interleave the pages of a photo album with acid-free paper or tissue. If plastic pages or sleeves are used, be sure they are of "archival" quality. This means that they are made of polyethylene, polyester or polypropylene, which are all inert plastics.

Do I use glass or plastic?

Use a glass or plexiglas that provides UV (ultraviolet) protection if the art or photo will be exposed to direct sunlight. Preferably, use Denglas, a glass that is almost invisible in front of the photograph. Pretty expensive but we use it!

Any wood on the frame that touches the artwork should be sealed with acid-free tape to prevent color or acids in the wood from discoloring the art.

Recommended Framers

There really is only one framer to use if you are in the UK and are serious about display. Unequivocally, we recommend John Jones in Finsbury Park, London for framing.