I love, love, love, love, LOVE photography! Framing, though, touches a particular nerve with me—it’s expensive (or obviously tacky), it promotes a homogenous aesthetic, and is tedious as hell. I knew early on that standard black frames with two inch white mats didn’t feel right for my work. I started experimenting.
Pizza box framing perhaps wasn’t my greatest idea.
For my first trash photography show back in 2018, I framed the prints on used pizza boxes to snark on convention…however, the boxes started to mold after a few weeks and I had to bonfire them all! Ah, the benefits of living in a rural county with no burn laws!
Then I moved to Los Angeles and had to rebuild my collection. I started working in sustainability on commercial productions and found that art departments throw away lots of perfectly useable materials. I started pulling acrylic sheets, foam boards, and wood pieces out of the waste stream. Eventually, I lucked into whole frames in various states of duress. This gave me a working pool of materials to pull from at zero cost.
Saved from an eternity in the landfill...
...and damned to eternity as "fine art!"
Back to why I hate framing: the cost. Art is not a cheap hobby. You need time to develop skills, money for tools and materials, more time to pursue exhibitions, even more money for training, and endless time for failed projects. A lot of folks are simply priced out of ever exhibiting their work. I certainly can’t afford “proper” framing. TO HELL WITH CONVENTION! If I want to create something, I’m going to find a way to do it. It may look monstrous or maniacal, citing my moldy pizza box frames, but it will exist. You cannot stop a former child of divorce from Scranton. I digress.
I had framing materials ready and needed prints to put in them. Prints are also prohibitively expensive if you do ‘‘em at size. I am a firm believer in “GO BIG OR GO HOME.” I learned that you can do quality poster prints as part of your membership at LA Public Library’s media labs in K-Town & DTLA. Each time I’d book a studio to record a podcast, I’d make a large print. LAPL’s staff are always willing to advise and teach you how to use their equipment (like the cutter). Now, I have legit prints.
Let’s get framing.
The trouble with salvaged materials is that you don’t always have standard sizes…since I cropped my original photos with excessive zeal, I have many whacky sized prints, too. Utility knife and straight edge to the rescue! Or rather curved acrylic knife and angled mat cutter. Having the right tool for the task saves you much time, frustration, and broken acrylic sheets.
I cut smaller frames from large acrylic panels. If I don’t have an edge material or solid backing, I’ll sandwich a print between two clear sheets–drilling holes for bolts & wing nuts to secure ‘em. It’s unconventional, but I like the scrappy look.
I often have to dismantle “complete” pieces to get at the framing parts. I am an ogre and often break glass or smudge mats in the process. Rather than tossing the sullied mats, I realized that I could just watercolor on the mats and incorporate the smudges into the design. THE BUG IS NOW A FEATURE.
I needed to cut a custom layered mat for the last piece I framed. The print is big enough for the giant frame, but just small enough that it doesn’t fill the stock mat. So, I tried cutting. Fool I was, I didn’t try a practice cut despite having never matted before. It turned out quite jaggedy and snaggely. It started bubbling when I painted it, so to “fix” all of this, I just ripped pieces out of the mat and its border. It now has a nice distressed look. I’m going to reposition this one when I get the time.
Additionally, I’ll use spray paint to hide dings in wood frames and match the tones in the print.
Other times, the salvaged frames simply look nice as they are…and I don’t break them when changing out the photographs.
Some frames should remain intact.
Leveraging discarded materials and public resources helped me build a library of awesome prints that are now on display at Surfrider LA’s lab in Santa Monica (go volunteer with your local chapter, they are awesome and accommodating to even the most bizarre schedules). I could not have done it otherwise.
If you don’t live in a city with a wasteful film industry or robust public resources, you can source materials on the cheap at thrift stores like Goodwill, join your neighborhood Buy Nothing Group, or do some classic curb hunting. I’ve pulled more than a few pieces from the curb.
I hope this helps you make some cool stuff without breaking the bank. Do share any salvaged art you make, I’d love to see it. Perhaps we can even start a “Salvaged Art Olympics” event down the line?
Special Thanks…
…to EcoSet for supplying me with so many salvaged materials—they are truly an excellent resource for artists and filmmakers— to Surfrider-LA for hosting my photos in their lab and giving me ample opportunities to get involved, and to LA Public Library’s Octavia Lab for making creative tools accessible!