The Importance of Good Quality Photographs to Document Work

Pete and I went to The Gallery, Ryedale Folk Museum last weekend, to take some exhibition shots of the Nicholson show before it came down on Monday in preparation for hanging Ian Mitchell's show. They will be part of the ongoing archival record of exhibitions at The Gallery.  Professor Gordon Bell also requested a copy of them for his own records.  Pete took the photo's, I made sure the space was tidy and was on hand to approve the shots! 

We then drove to my studio, where Pete photographed my latest work so that I have some  really good quality for my archive.  These are invaluable as, should I choose to submit work for exhibitions, good photographs are essential.  I am lucky to have such a helpful husband because it would cost me a lot of money to hire a photographer to do this for me.  Pete takes several exposures of each work, (fewer for black and white as there is less adjustment required) and we then spend time with the downloaded images, selecting the best one and adjusting the colour balance until it resembles as exactly as possible, the original.  We have to have the original there with us to refer to while we go through this process, which, now that my studio is no longer at home, means a lot of lugging work backwards and forwards, but it is worth it.  For those of you reading this who are interested, the software Pete uses along with a Huey screen callibrator is Nikon's NX2 software because he has a Nikon camera, which does the same job as Photoshop.

Study, re-worked canvas

 

I visited Anthony Bentley of Ginger Hall Framing, Kirkbymoorside last week to discuss framing of some of my large drawings.  As usual, Anthony was really  helpful and interesting on the subject.  Now that the photo's are taken, I need to get them framed to protect them.  I envisage plain square frames, white or wood washed with white, with the drawings floated on a back paper or board, which will show the deckle edges of the paper off and present the drawings really well.

The Departed # 1

The Departed # 1V

I bubble wrap all my work for storage on the racks I have at home and a really helpful reference is to have a label on the outside of each package, which has an image of the work as well as the dimensions and any relevant information about it.  This makes it easier to select the correct image from a series that are all the same size without having to unwrap each one.  The good images can be viewed on screen by any interested parties, selected and found on the rack much more quickly by checking the label and may be unwrapped for closer inspection. 

 It is useful to document work as it progresses, which I do with my Lumix digital camera, many of which I put up on this blog but for the finished pieces, a good quality record is an important marketing tool.   Keeping an archive of high quality images of the work is vital, because, who knows, one day I may actually sell some and the original image will  no longer be around for me to look at.

These images are also useful when looking back at the development of the work and working process/practice, they may also provide a useful reference when developing new work.

All are images copyright of the artist