The photographs in this catalog are copyright protected and are not to be reproduced without the express written permission of the respective artists. Catalog and text Š Susan Keiser and Scott Lerman Fugitivart is a trademark of Lucid Brands. LLC.
Curated by Susan Keiser + Scott Lerman
Genesis As artists we have both worked in a variety of media. But the one constant is our shared lifelong dedication to photography. Over the last few years our conversations have circled around the frustrating dictates that the fine art marketplace imposes on the production, marketing, and sale of photographic prints. Driven by technological forces, the market is pushing photography to extremes—free viewing on tablet and phone screens or costly limitededition prints. There are fewer and fewer opportunities for the general public to enjoy exceptional prints outside of institutional settings. We wondered what could spur a renaissance in the
creation and appreciation of photographic prints without undermining the value of limited-edition, archival, collection-worthy work. Then in September 2013 Scott uttered the word “Fugitivart,� and the long journey to this exhibition began. Our hope is that the Fugitivart exhibition, catalog, and website (www.fugitivart.com) are just the beginning of a much larger conversation among artists, gallerists, educators, curators, and collectors about the possibilities and future of fine art photographic prints.
Susan Keiser Curators
Scott Lerman
Fugitivart explores the implications of fine art photographs as ephemeral objects. 1
The Idea
The Fugitivart exhibition was hosted at the Soho Photo Gallery in New York City, September 2013.
Anyone trying to understand photography’s place in the world today is immediately confronted with the fact that there are two separate often opposing realms, the physical world of books and prints and the digital world of sites and iPads. No one has yet figured out the relationship between the two on a global scale, much less what this dichotomy means for individual artists trying to make photography their career, their livelihood. The meme of the early years of the Internet itself, “information wants to be free,” has had surprising resilience, bedeviling artists in all media who can’t afford to give away their creative output but can’t afford not to use the web to get exposure and develop an audience. While some artists are beginning to create, distribute, even sell work that never leaves the world of bits and bytes, many of us continue to believe in the power of the photographic print. But how do we harness the new technologies to get our work out in the world without losing it in the cloud? Vast effort has gone into making digital photographic prints archival—to improving print quality while extending viewing lifespan to over a hundred years. Similar effort has gone into making it possible for the first time in history to produce unlimited numbers of identical prints. Yet instead of exploring this new technology, the
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market has coalesced around the concept of limited editions that restrict artists to creating only a small number of permanent copies of any given image. But what if in addition to these limited editions, artists could produce and sell unlimited numbers of self-destructing prints—prints that lasted 6–18 months before disappearing forever? What if fine art photographic prints had two realms, the world of vetted, high-end, limited archival editions and an unlimited world of Fugitivart prints? What would we do with that freedom?
of being fugitive in a distinctive and visually arresting way. As you are reading this they are slowly fading away. By concentrating on the images themselves and not on how many were made, how long they will last, or their resale value, Fugitivart has the power to reengage artists and the public in the irreplaceable beauty, power, and expressiveness of the photographic print.
Intentional impermanence has a long tradition in all art forms, from the outdoor installations of Andy Goldsworthy to the delicate wall drawings of Sol LeWitt, and it could have an important role in contemporary photography as well. If we let it. One of the goals of the Fugitivart exhibition was to spur the creation of new works that explore photographs as both objects and experiences, that take advantage of “made to fade” as a tool for creating meaning. How might interjecting this new dimension—intentional impermanence— shake up the world of fine art photography? Every print in the Fugitivart exhibition was born just weeks before it was hung. Further, every image was chosen because it expressed the idea
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For many of us it’s not the sun peeking around the corner of the blinds, or the alarm set to moldy oldies, or the special needle-sharp shower, it’s that grande cup of coffee you grab on the way to work that officially starts the day. Tomorrow, before you toss the empty, look down. If, like Drora, you’re an extremely talented photographer, you’ll see a beautiful world of light and form that’s worth waking up for.
Drora Bashan Traces 1
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Drora Bashan Traces 1 Left, No. 03 Right (clockwise from the top left) No. 10, No. 05, No. 01, and No. 06
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Anne Berry Behind Glass While we all know the world’s nonhuman primates are rapidly disappearing, Anne Berry’s arresting portraits make it personal. Her subjects are not statistics, but fully present individuals, impossible to ignore— curious creatures torn by the desire to flee and the need for warmth and contact. Housed behind glass that isolates them more completely than any barred cage, they will touch you if you let them.
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Anne Berry Behind Glass Far left: Monkey in Greenhouse with Doll Left: Baboon
Anne Berry Behind Glass Far left: Persephone Left: Bruno
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Anne Berry Behind Glass Right: Baboon in Window Far right: Monkey in Painted Room
Anne Berry Behind Glass Right: Monkey at the Door Far right: Spectacled Monkey
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Anne Berry Behind Glass Far left: Spider Left: Caged Monkey
Anne Berry Behind Glass Far left: Czech Monkey Left: Pierre de Brazza’s Monkey
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Anne Berry Behind Glass Right: Epulu Far right: Monkey in Window with Chickens
Anne Berry Behind Glass Right: Guenon Far right: Stop
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Norman Borden No Diving Sometimes you just have to do it. It doesn’t matter what the rules are, or what the sign says, in that instant, you just have to jump, a glorious dive out of the heat and into the cooling sea.
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Norman Borden No Diving 17
Lesley Ann Ercolano Edinburgh Diary
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An imaging technician at the Scottish National Archives, Lesley, as she once said in an interview, “sits on her bum in the dark all day taking pictures of various records.� But once outside, tiny miracles start to happen. With her camera always at the ready, she wanders, watches, and waits, creating photographs that reveal the profound, hilarious, sometimes puzzling relationships that normally pass unseen.
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Lesley Ann Ercolano Edinburgh Diary Childhood Nightmares 20
Lesley Ann Ercolano Edinburgh Diary Neighborhood Watch 21
Lesley Ann Ercolano Edinburgh Diary Below 22
Lesley Ann Ercolano Edinburgh Diary Ola 23
Lesley Ann Ercolano Edinburgh Diary Lightbulb 24
Lesley Ann Ercolano Edinburgh Diary Air Show 25
When confronted with a large body of water, our first thoughts are often, “What’s on the other side?” and “How can I get there?” While dreams of flight are more poetic, and swimming with the fishes has an unfortunately negative connotation, humans have long built piers and boardwalks to enable them to walk on water. But they don’t last forever, and as can be seen in Rosalie’s images, the poetry often comes in their ruin. 26
Rosalie Frost Walking on Water
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Rosalie Frost Fragile Beauty Jamaica Bay Landscapes: Morning Fog, North Channel Bridge
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Rosalie Frost Fragile Beauty Jamaica Bay Landscapes: Old Pilings, Dead Horse Bay
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Susan Guice Delta Blues
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The beauty of Susan’s aerial images pulls you right in, the undulating curves, the textures of the vegetation, and the seemingly impossible colors of the sky reflected on the water. Unfortunately, what we are admiring today may not even exist any more, as human interference is rapidly turning the delta marshes into open water. Those straight lines that add an attractive graphic quality to the images are the canals and pipelines that are destroying one of the world’s unique and irreplaceable ecosystems. Sadly, these Fugitivprints will probably outlast the reality on the ground.
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Susan Guice Coastal Waterways Boating in Biloxi Marsh
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Susan Guice Coastal Waterways Between Reggio & Hopedale
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Susan Guice Coastal Waterways Ocean Springs Marsh Tree
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Susan Guice Coastal Waterways Sunlit Marsh
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Susan Guice Coastal Waterways Inlet on Johnson Island
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Susan Guice Coastal Waterways Delacroix III
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Susan Guice Coastal Waterways Marsh Tree at Bangs Island
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Ellen Jacob Substitutes Strollers are a common sight these days in many of New York’s neighborhoods. In some of the more elite zip codes, one can also observe that often the children are white and the caregivers black. Virtually unnoticed and ignored except in their roles as nannies, many of the women are immigrants, some legal, some not, all separated from their loved ones at home. Ellen’s images explore the complex bonds in these transitory families.
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Ellen Jacob Substitutes Boblin in New Jersey
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Ellen Jacob Substitutes Gemma
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Ellen Jacob Substitutes Bus Stop
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Susan Keiser As in a Season of Autumn Careful observers will see skeletons floating on the surface of spring ponds. The delicate structures of leaves whose soft tissues have been eaten away during the winter, these ghostly remains were prized by the Victorians, who used them to create “phantom” bouquets. Susan’s evocative images use such natural elements of life, growth, and decay to create unexpected portraits. Hidden behind layers of time and memory, the past is colored and shaped in unexpected ways.
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Susan Keiser As in a Season of Autumn SA No. 04
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Susan Keiser As in a Season of Autumn SA No. 08
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Susan Keiser As in a Season of Autumn SA No. 13
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Susan Keiser As in a Season of Autumn SA No. 09
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Susan Keiser As in a Season of Autumn SA No. 11
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Daguerreotyping, the first practical photographic process, produced images of extraordinary detail. And by slowly rotating their cameras to expose extra-wide plates, practitioners created the first panoramas. It wasn’t until the last decade that advances in digital technology made it possible to surpass those achievements. Part science, part magic, Scott’s panoramas knit individual frames into glorious images that capture a complete and immersive view of the world.
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Scott Lerman Panography
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Scott Lerman Bibendum in Times Square Next two spreads: Beyond Petroleum (cropped) and Jesus Parks
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It is a truism that after the inevitable cataclysm destroys virtually everything on earth, it will be the cockroaches that survive. While science fiction writers and movie makers have explored this notion for decades, Johanna M책rtensson decided to test it for herself, building a model city entirely out of bread and photographing it over the succeeding six months. It did indeed fall into total decay. But what a beautiful way to go!
Johanna M책rtensson Facades
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Johanna Mårtensson Facades Nos. 1–6
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Despite the best efforts of department stores across the country to convince us that eating utensils should be called flatware, some of us still call them silverware, even the plastic stuff we keep on hand for parties and picnics. Maybe we’re just nostalgic for the times when everyday things had real character. That’s what Jay looks for, how the metal and glass of simple objects can reflect and refract light to create new forms and complex abstract patterns.
Jay Matusow Forking Paths
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Jay Matusow Cutlery Knife in Glass with Forks
Jay Matusow Cutlery Knife in Glass with Forks Two 68
Jay Matusow Cutlery Forks
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There’s nothing elusive or temporary about death. It’s as clear-cut and permanent as it gets. But that doesn’t stop us from trying all sorts of ways to turn it into a passing phase—scientifically, religiously, and even physically. In the closets and on the shelves of a nondescript storage facility Claire captures what remains of animals whose spirits have long since passed on, but whose bodies have been preserved for science.
Claire Maxwell What Remains
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Claire Maxwell A Tiger, Three Crows, and a Dinosaur Three Crows 72
Claire Maxwell A Tiger, Three Crows, and a Dinosaur A Tiger 73
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Claire Maxwell A Tiger, Three Crows, and a Dinosaur A Dinosaur
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Andrew Miller Brand Spirit
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In a society obsessed with celebrity culture, what would life be like without our beloved brands? Every day for 100 days, Andrew stripped a branded object of its color and logo—all distinguishing marks—by painting it pure white. Confounding conventional expectations, his work revealed not a world of boring, generic objects, but the enduring and iconic essence well-hidden beneath each surface.
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Andrew Miller Brand Spirit From the series of 100 images.
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Jean believes in the power of angels to guide and protect us and to give us the inner strength to live our beliefs. Not the very human-looking angels we see throughout art history, but the spiritual kind that dwell deep in the mind and heart. Rejecting conventional angel imagery she offers us a portrait that is both as personal and mysterious as belief itself.
Jean Nestares Just A.
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Jean Nestares Just A. Angel Number 17
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Andi Schreiber Pretty, Please
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All women are forced to deal with the “Invisible Forties,” the gradual loss of their place in the culture as vibrant sexual beings. Few are willing to address it head-on and in public. A frank visual assessment of how the human body marks time, these images display lips, hair, and torsos that defy and then yield to decades. For Andi, “Disappearing is not an option.”
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Andi Schreiber Pretty, Please In Vein
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Andi Schreiber Pretty, Please Self Indulgent
Andi Schreiber Pretty, Please Curl
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In 1962 Buckminster Fuller envisioned the Geoscope, a giant 200-ft. globe suspended above the East River. Computer driven, covered in colored lights, it would display data that could unite people from all over the world. What was a just a dream for Fuller is becoming a reality as Nick continues creating his experimental sculptures to “unite our vision of the physical world and the growing cloud of digital data that it spews forth.” Based on the concept of “persistence of vision”, Orb 2 is one of the most exciting kinetic sculptures you’ll see in NYC this season.
James Nick Sears Orb 2
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James Nick Sears Orb 2 The Orb uses a circular ring of RGB LEDs that are spun at high speed. Controlled by computer, the rotating display relies on the phenomena of “persistence of vision� to display spherical still and moving images.
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Stephen F. Sherman Draped NYC New York is forever under construction. Residents and tourists alike thread their way under and around raw beams and metal scaffolds, sometimes cursing, but mostly accepting of the inconvenience. But from a distance, at the right time of day, and in the sights of the right photographer, these temporary, purely utilitarian creations become objects of great beauty. Like gift wrap that’s too pretty to open.
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Stephen F. Sherman Draped New York 42nd Street
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Stephen F. Sherman Draped New York Lower Fifth Avenue
Stephen F. Sherman Draped New York Red Hook at the BQE
Stephen F. Sherman Draped New York West 72nd Street
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Stephen F. Sherman Draped New York Cooper Hewitt 96
Stephen F. Sherman Draped New York Church 9th Avenue
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Rene Descartes, mathematician, scientist, and father of modern philosophy, based his metaphysics on the necessity of seeing the finite in the infinite, and the infinite in the finite. Both require a special way of looking at the world. Sarah sees the beauty in the obvious and the obvious beauty in the obscure: a rainbow over a river, glints of color reflected onto a wall. (NB: It was Descartes who figured out where rainbows come from.)
Sarah J. Stankey One for the Birds
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Sarah J. Stankey One for the Birds Untitled No. 1
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Sarah J. Stankey One for the Birds Untitled No. 2
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Sarah J. Stankey One for the Birds Untitled No. 3
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Sarah J. Stankey One for the Birds Untitled No. 4
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Sarah J. Stankey One for the Birds Untitled No. 5
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Capel States Reflections
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Gently undulating or rapidly rippling, natural pond or artificial spill, a vast ocean or the tiniest tear, photographers have almost from the beginning turned to reflections in water to distort reality and multiply meanings in aesthetically arresting ways. An accomplished watercolorist, Capel recently traded in his brushes for a camera, but is still drawn to the mysterious properties of water to create mood.
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Capel States Tree Reflection 109
Established over 100 years ago, by the early 80s, The Carlton Arms Hotel in Chelsea had descended into the madness of an SRO for the desperate and destitute. As often happens in New York, that’s when the artists stepped in. The new owner began hiring them and housing them, and in return each contributed a new mural, sculpture, or other artwork to what has become an ever-changing display. And one of the most vibrant galleries in New York.
Reto Sterchi ArtBreak Hotel 110
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Reto Sterchi The Artbreak Hotel Number 7
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Reto Sterchi The Artbreak Hotel Number 6
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Reto Sterchi The Artbreak Hotel Number 2
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Reto Sterchi The Artbreak Hotel Number 8
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Reto Sterchi The Artbreak Hotel Number 10
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Paul Stetzer Sand Matters
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Anyone who has lived near the ocean has stood barefoot at the water’s edge, to feel the gentle tickle of sand swirling around one’s ankles, to watch as the tide creates beautiful patterns along the beach like those captured in Paul’s images. The sand seems so integral to the scene that we often forget how fragile it is, and how rapidly it’s disappearing from our coastlines.
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Paul Stetzer Sand Matters Untitled No. 02
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Paul Stetzer Sand Matters (Top left, clockwise) Untitled Nos. 04, 06, 05, and 07
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In the summer they’re brilliant flashes of color gliding through the water like living kaleidoscopes. But as temperatures fall toward freezing, they descend to the bottom of the pond. Hardly moving, barely even breathing, they hide among the earthwarmed stones until the spring thaw.
Sonia Toledo Oh Fish! 122
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Sonia Toledo Fire and Ice
Sonia Toledo Staying Alive
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Cropped, bobbed, or flowing in a tangle of curls. Growing where we want it, where we don’t, or not at all. Changing by the hour, by the minute, with the stroke of a hand, hair is a human obsession that cuts across most cultures. These photographs are from an ongoing series that explore its mysteries.
Diane Zeitlin Hair
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Diane Zeitlin Hair Neck
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Diane Zeitlin Hair Baby Head
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Made to Fade You can easily see the fading of a Fugitivart print after seven months of intense exposure to sunlight. The vivid control print was made with Epson Pigment Inks.
We appreciate the irony of intentionally making fugitive prints given the immense R+D effort that has gone into developing photographic media with 100+ year lifespans. In the past, color prints didn’t just fade when displayed, they faded when stored in total darkness. Open a vintage box of Ektachrome® transparencies or Agfacolor Type 4 prints that were sealed “at birth” and you’ll find only ghosts of the original images. Finally, in the mid-1980s Kodak, Agfa, and others were able to reformulate emulsions, substrates, and processes to solve so-called “dark-fading” issues. Once dark-fading was conquered, the industry tackled the problem of prints fading when exposed to light (light-fading.) We suggest you visit http://www.wilhelm-research.com for exhaustive information on permanence in prints. Inkjet prints have undergone a similar evolution. The first inkjet inks faded quickly, often in weeks. Ozone attacked and shifted colors. Later versions had better longevity, but much poorer print color range. Today, modern inkjet printers from Canon, Epson, and others are capable of making superb, very long-lived prints when paired with buffered and cotton-fiber papers. Enter Fugitivart prints. They are inkjet prints with accurate color and a wide dynamic range, that are printed on high-quality, elegantly surfaced paper. They look as good or better than permanent prints. But they are made to fade.
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The pace of fading will vary depending on the level of UV and ozone. Kept out of direct sunlight, prints should last well over 6 months and you may not notice the fading for up to 18 months.
Photograph by Scott Lerman
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How do you make superb inkjet ink that is designed to go bad? We asked some of the most innovative master printers and ink makers out there.
It’s a paper often used for fine art prints. Framed and well sealed under expensive UV glass, it should last for over a hundred years. So we decided to plant the seeds of destruction in the paper itself.
That’s a provocative question to pose in an industry where the quest has been to make inks that are truly archival and completely reliable for use in fine art inkjet printers. (So sensitive that the company that manufactured our Fugitivart inks asked that we not identity them.)
All Fugitivart prints are back-sprayed with citric acid (essentially lemon juice and distilled water). It is a completely safe and sure way to raise the acidity of the paper. Acidic paper will turn yellow and disintegrate over time.
We couldn’t just buy cheap (likely China-made) ink and hope it would fade. There would be no guarantee that we’d get the same formula with every order. Also, cheap inks are notorious for clogging, sometimes ruining, thousand-dollar print heads.
We also flash the prints with intense UV light. This, we’re told, hastens the degradation of the optical brightening agents (OBAs) used on the surface of the paper. Once the OBAs are depleted, the paper will revert to its natural, cream-colored state.
What we needed was quality ink that would be consistent from bottle to bottle, that would produce superb prints with minimal bronzing and metamerism (ugly shifts of surface and color under varied light conditions.)
This process ensures that Fugitivart prints hermetically sealed in opaque envelopes are still… fugitive.
Success! Our Gen1 Fugitivink works in highend Epson printers. It has a better gamut (color range) than Epson archival pigmented inks. But it fades far, far, more quickly—in just 6–18 months under typical conditions. The tradeoffs? This ink probably voids printer warranties, it requires first flushing out all traces of standard Epson inks, and it must be carefully profiled for the printer and paper as standard ICS profiles will not work. Fugitivart prints are printed on very high-quality paper that is handsome, bright, receptive to ink. 132
Every Fugitivart print is labeled on the back with a “born on” date to ensure that the collector knows that the print is “fresh” but not archival. Just as important, the artist and image title, along with artist or gallery contact information, lets them know where to go when they’re ready to buy an archival print or view more of the artist’s work.
Fugitivart prints are made with dye-based inks. While they have superior color gamet, the dyes are impermanent (fugitive.)
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Fugitivartists Drora Bashan ddur05@gmail.com Anne Berry anne.ellis.berry@gmail.com www.anneberrystudio.com Norman Borden nbsohophoto@gmail.com www.normanbordenphoto.com Lesley Ann Ercolano lesleyercolano@hotmail.com www.flickr.com/photos/lesleyercolano
Ellen Jacob ellen@jpglobal.com ellenjacob.com Susan Keiser susankeiser@hotmail.com www.susankeiserphotography.com Scott Lerman scottlerman@lucidbrands.com www.scottlerman.com Johanna Martensson johanna@johannamartensson.se www.johannamartensson.se
Rosalie Frost rfrostphoto@gmail.com Susan Guice susan@guiceagency.com www.susanguice.com
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Jay Matusow ccjay52@weftweb.com www.weftweb.com
Claire Maxwell info@clairemaxwell.com www.clairemaxwell.com
Sarah J. Stankey sarahstankey@gmail.com www.sarahjstankey.com
Andrew Miller miller.andrewg@gmail.com www.brandspirit.tumbler.com
Capel States capelstates@gmail.com www.capel.carbonmade.com
Jean Nestares jeannestares@yahoo.com www.jeannestares.com
Reto Sterchi www.retosterchi.com
Andi Schreiber andi@andischreiber.com www.andischreiber.com James Nick Sears jnsears@gmail.com www.jamesnsears.com Stephen F. Sherman sfsherman@mac.com www.sfsherman.photography.com
Paul Stetzer pstetzer@earthlink.com www.paulstetzerphotography.com Sonia Toledo soniamtoledo11@gmail.com www.soniatoledo.net Diane Zeitlin dianecz@yahoo.com
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