We’re so proud of the photographers and curators that have made 2021 a great launch year for our gallery. We’re also extremely proud of our print lab at PhotoLounge for producing such stunning prints. Curators are amazing at editing and collaborating with the photographers, as they help find and sequence the right pictures to create the story that we’re trying to tell. Part of this is knowing how to place the pictures on the right wall, in the optimal size, and on the correct material. When all of this lines up, magic happens and you love the show.
Guests in the gallery always ask about the printing. Each and every print featured in the show is printed in-house at PhotoLounge. Our print lab has been printing shows and custom prints for clients since opening in 1997. Prints used to be made in the darkroom, but for many years now we have made fine art custom digital prints. Most recently a new Canon Prograf 4100 and another Epson P5000 were added to the lab. These printers produce museum-quality prints using archival pigments that get sprayed on a variety of fine art papers, and are often described as “Digital Pigment Prints” or “Giclee Prints.” This is the highest standard for a photography print available today.
Sam Rosenblum is the Master Printer and has been with PhotoLounge for about 5 years. He prints all the gallery shows, working closely with the curators in the same way that he works with all other clients. Sam takes print consultations in the print lab to look at files on a calibrated monitor and even run some proofs to determine paper choice and size.
The current show is printed on Baryta paper and hung unframed. Baryta, a paper reminiscent of traditional darkroom paper, is double-weight and cotton-based and has a semi-gloss surface. So it’s a little like Matte paper with a hint of Gloss. Baryta is great at capturing all the detail in a dark area of the picture while still holding on to the details in the brightest part.