With so many reproduction methods available, it can be incredibly difficult to understand which one to choose.  Furthering the level of difficulty can bring things to mind such as purpose, affordability and longevity.  For a bit, I would like to talk about Fine Art and how reproductions translate into archival and non-archival print techniques and methodologies.

With Fine Art Photography being at the literal forefront of digital artworks and leading the way with technology and innovation, it has never been more challenging to distinguish what is best to those whom are attempting to understand the unique characteristics and qualities lent to each medium.

With so many opinions that abound, I believe it is important to take my opinion out of the equation here and specifically speak to the facts of each, as they all garner favor among multitudes of avid and professional art lovers around the world but which one is the best? With regard to the common types of reproductions, we should make mention of the most popular, in that Giclee is very well known, Metal prints also known as dye sublimation and acrylic are the top three leading technologies associated with Fine Art photographic reproduction technology.

Giclee is a French word for splash or spray if you will and commonly giclee print technologies are associated with oil painting reproductions on canvas.  My Mother, American Master Ruth Mayer has a multitude of works reproduced beautifully as giclee’s and they are quite pretty!  For years I have watched her try to perfect the art of printing on canvass. Truly, the common denominator here is finding the right coatings to coat the canvass after printing and after witnessing this firsthand for three decades, “it is all in the coatings”.  If you do not have the right solution recipe, giclee’s will result in a cracked coating mess after they harden many years later. This can absolutely be disastrous if you are not careful and it must be noted that much care must be taken with regard to the type of conditions a giclee reproduction will spend its time in.  Any environment too dry or too humid, too hot or too much direct light will absolutely ruin a giclee! Hence why I cannot overstate the importance of the actual coatings utilized by the print master. If done correctly, these reproductions can last decades and truly reflect the qualities necessary to qualify as an archival collectors’ piece. With regard to photography as it relates to giclee’s, they are absolutely the most inappropriate application of technology, in that the canvass is very textured and cannot show the photograph in a way that is true to the capture itself.  A photograph reproduced as a giclee reproduction will appear grainy, almost porous and will have the textured canvass prominently shown behind the ink and coating. For these reasons, giclee will rank as one of the more inexpensive and realistically the most prohibitive manner to properly reproduce a Fine Art Photograph.

Metallic Prints also known as dye sublimation prints. These prints are created infusing an image under high heat on to an aluminum sheet. While dye sublimation is very popular among photographers, it comes with its fair share of pro’s and con’s.  Dye sublimation prints are very durable in most cases; however, the resulting image reproduction is not near as sharp or vivid as it could be, and an undesirable trait is that they are prone to chipping.  Given the characteristics of the reproduction method and inexpensive cost to produce, metal prints have garnered quick favor, however, the actuality of this technology is that it is non archival, meaning that it will not stand the test of one lifetime, let alone many lifetimes before it is subject to fading.  In many cases metallic prints will begin to noticeably fade within a decade and much faster if there is direct sunlight in any way or manner subjected to the reproduced artwork. I have yet to see a metal print survive a decade of normal display conditions and sit next to a fresh metal print side by side and not suffer a substantial difference with regard to color loss. It is for this simple reason alone that my faith in this technology has significantly diminished since its inception.

Last but certainly not least is the commonly referred to acrylic, face mount print while these are by far the costliest means of reproduction, they are also by far, the best in terms of archival longevity, display quality and beauty within the reproduction. While there are many different types of acrylic print ranging from metallic papers, to plastic substrates and transparencies, to acrylic, Lucite and tru-life glass. The acrylic print is bar none, the best Fine Art medium of reproduction for landscape Photographers and the pinnacle of what you would want from a Fine Art collector standpoint of view. Within the genre of acrylic prints there are many different types of materials used by different print masters, however, the most well-known are Fuji flex Archival and Lumachrome HD.  Both offer a beautiful finished reproduction when done correctly, however, the print master must be vetted thoroughly.  His print mastering, attention to color mapping and care with his clean room and laminating techniques are of utmost importance.  Printing is one thing; however, laminating is all in the details and most often where mistakes are subject to quality control issues such as orange peel, air pockets, debris and bad batches of acrylic, tru-life or Lucite.

With so many things to look out for, sometimes it can be tough to decide upon which direction to turn. It has always been my thought process to always place myself square in the shoes of the end collector, meaning my opinion with regard to what is most cost effective or quickly achieved is very quickly thrown out the door.  Essentially, as purveyors of Fine Art, adventurers and nomads of the wild, we go to the ends of the earth to bring back gems from around the world, moments captured often in people’s dreams, revealed in a moment as a snap of the shutter in a moment of bliss!  As owners of our work and creators of an exceptional, unique and valuable limited-edition artwork, we owe our end collector the absolute best of the best of the best. No matter what!  There should be no expense spared, no cost too great and no shortcut taken in order to deliver a truly phenomenal, best in class Fine Art Photograph; scarce in its numbers and reproduced in the utmost of integrity with archival technologies that will last the test of time itself.  This is what we owe to ourselves and to those who believe in us enough to invest in us! Afterall, our collectors allow us to pursue our dreams, without them we are working a job and I for one have never worked a day in my life as an artist.  I simply pursue perfection and sophistication with every step I take and every turn we make. With these attributes in mind, I move forward as an artist and a businessman with a focus on everything that is best in class, to make that my core DNA. Make your collectors number one with everything you do, then and only then, everyone wins.

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