I have always wondered how museums handle really large photos. I can understand paintings because they come sort of “pre-mounted” on canvases, but what about photos? Say a museum received a gift of a life-sized Richard Avedon photo. How would that photo be mounted to show? Would it be framed? Glued to some kind of backing? I am not so much interested on how they attach it to the wall, but rather how do that prepare it for show. Any insights? The reason I ask is because I am thinking of making some large prints, like 40x60 or larger, but am not sure what to do once I get them.
Back in the day when photographers printed their own prints, many would have a print dryer, which featured a slightly curved polished metal sheet with a canvas cover. Once the print was dry, you could also use this to mount your photos using sheets of some sort of hot glue between the print and the backing. Here is a pic of one: https://williamsdesign.ca/?product=heatrite-photographic-print-dryer the one I used was pretty big - you could get a lot of prints done in one go… probably about a meter across and a bit longer maybe 1.2m.
Nice to know! My darkroom setup came with what might be the exact same print dryer, never had one before, but nice to know it has another use too.