How to Care for Your Art from Your Dog Photography Session
The wall art and albums I produce are made to last. The paper your wall art is printed on has a Standard Archival Value of 100 years in home display — and longer in dark storage. Your heirloom album pages are printed on archival paper and bound to be handled and passed down.
But archival doesn't mean indestructible. There are a few things worth knowing to make sure your artwork looks just as good in twenty years as it does the day it arrives.
Keep Art Out of Direct Sunlight
This is the most important one.
Artwork is coated with UV protection, but daily direct sunlight will fade colors over time regardless. Choose wall placement away from areas that receive direct afternoon sun, ideally pick walls that are in indirect light rather than directly opposite west-facing windows.
For albums, the same principle applies — don't leave them in a spot where they receive daily direct sun, like a sun-drenched windowsill or a coffee table directly under a skylight.
Indirect and ambient light? Completely fine. Enjoy your art in well-lit rooms. Just not in the sun's direct path.
Clean with a Soft Dry Cloth Only
Dust your wall art occasionally with a soft, dry microfiber cloth. That's genuinely all you need — a light pass to prevent buildup.
Avoid all cleaning products, sprays, and polishes. The chemicals in furniture polish in particular can be absorbed into album pages and cause discoloration over time. Water can warp. Nothing with any kind of chemical formulation belongs near archival prints.
When in doubt: dry microfiber, light touch, done.
Live with Your Art in Lived-In Spaces
This one sounds obvious but is worth saying directly: don't put artwork in storage.
Basements, attics, and unconditioned spaces experience humidity fluctuations that can damage both prints and album bindings over time. Artwork does best in the same climate-controlled spaces you live in — which is, conveniently, also where you can see it every day.
The best possible fate for your artwork is being looked at constantly in a room you love. That's exactly what it was made for.
Back Up Your Digital Files in Multiple Places
Your collection includes digital files. Please don't let them live in one place.
Technology changes faster than most of us expect — floppy discs, CDs, early USB formats have all had their moment and passed. The safest approach is the 3-2-1 rule: three copies, on two different formats, with one off-site. A cloud backup plus a physical hard drive plus an external backup drive is a reasonable approach.
And the most reliable backup of all: print your favorites. A photograph on your wall or in an album will outlast any technology format.
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