apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Is the tension sufficient to hold the pictures if you open a window and a strong breeze blows through the room? If not, I could see this being a big mess.

Bad idea if your photos have any real value to you and/or if you cannot reprint them. First, the photos are not protected from sunlight damage by any UV plexi; second, why would you intentionally bend the photos, even a little? Seems to me you are accelerating the aging process of the paper.

Sounds gimmicky to me; looks cheap.

I like it! I think its a great way to easily rotate through photos/small art to quickly change the mood of a wall. I might have to try it out.

I think it's kind of boring to have pictures just slapped up on the wall like that. Maybe I'm old-fashioned but I prefer a frame. It's not like it's that hard to swap out framed photos.

RECYCLE/DIY/FREE VERSION
get trash-bound dvd cases from blockbuster (they repackage discs into their own locking cases and throw out the standard ones.. at least they did when i worked there years back).. and slip your photos into the front of the case. you can open the case and push standard thumb tacks through the backside of the case.. then tack them onto the wall.
keeps them flat, easy to swap.. kind of cheap looking, but you dont really notice that they are dvd cases once they are on the wall like that.
I put white paper behind the photos to create the illusion of a matte.

Seems best for someone who is constantly changing the photos -- maybe a designer or photographer. But for general use, no. It's not very attractive, is a dust catcher, and does not, as BB pointed out, protect the photos at all.

Could be fun for a party, though. Take the snaps, print them out on your home photo printer, put them up for the guests.

Cool idea, antimatt, Blockbuster still throws out the DVD cases (I asked my little brother who works there)

I agree with forestdweller... this would work well for presentation purposes.

Why not use these to display non-precious bits of paper, like postcards? I like buying a few art postcards whenever I go to a museum (rather than taking my own crappy pictures of the pieces I like). These would be perfect for displaying them.

i love it. well, i AM a photographer :-D i wouldn't use it for irreplaceable pictures, but those are only few anyway, aren't they? the tension in photo paper is actually quite strong, so i think these would hold the pics safely in place.

Dusty, cheap-looking, dangerous to the pictures, a little tacky, etc... yeah...


But I'm guessing this is for normal/regular 16¢ digital prints from CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Etc... but even if they were regular film pictures... you still have the negatives, so why so much hesitation?

I can see teenagers putting these in their rooms and swapping pics like they swap people on their Myspace. Maybe a cute way to mount an ordered collage, instead of those horrible 1980s ones with cutouts from magazines, and put together with a glue stick. (Barf)

A piece of scotch tape on the back of a non-precious snapshot won't hurt the paper either. Well, maybe it will, but I think this idea is, holy crap $4-5 a pair, a total gimmick. Lots of people get copies and take a lot of crappy photos they don't need in 20 years, and have been taping them to the wall (curating them) for years. Or using fun-tac, same thing.

Hi my name's Huw, I live in Sydney and have spent the last five years working on designing and producing the photo curator, thanks for all of your feedback.

I initially designed these photo wall mounts as a way to do something with the 1000's of digital photos which were on my computer.
The idea was to print out & swap around the images as i took new photos, keeping the wall fresh and having a constant reminder of my latest events.

That's the purpose of them - to have a stylish and simple way to mount those digis that you've had printed out. You're right in saying that they're not really suitable for rare prints. But for being able to quickly change-out photos on a whim, they're perfect.

I make the curator's down in Sydney to support local industry and I've got some interesting new extensions to the idea that will be released within the next couple of years.

Anyway - it was good to hear everyone's feedback, thanks for taking an interest in curator. Email me if you have any other questions!

there's no such thing as non-damaging adhesive. someway, somehow, your walls will get ruined.

How many photos are irreplaceable these days with photography going digital? I have hundreds of digital prints and I think this is a great way to display some of them and the ability to change them on a whim is great! Congratulations Huw on supporting Sydney industry - i bought some online last night, but do you sell them in any sydney shops or markets??

After 12 months of trialling different tapes, I settled on using one long strip of a special low tack adhesive which has just enough strength to hold the photograph up (if I used any less the mounts would fall off the walls). Because of the low tack nature of the adhesive the mounts don't mark or damage modern painted surfaces - although I wouldn't recommend using them on wallpaper or painted plaster surfaces as those surfaces can be damaged.

@Erin: I started selling them last year at the Powerhouse Museum Young Blood market (twice a year) and the Melbourne Design Market last December, it was a great success as I sold out at both markets. I haven't approached any retailers yet but my goal this year is to start selling at some design stores and possibly photo printing outlets.

I think these are great. As a photographer that is constantly juxtaposing images on my walls, this system sure beats my old method of spray mounting the image to gator board and cutting the outer ¼” of the backing away so the images appear to float. Sounds laborious, but when you are used to wielding an x-acto it’s not that hard.
For the people posting comments about their precious photos, unless you are using special glass and archival matt board and paper backings, scan your old photos and frame the copies. I have most of the old photos from my family, and the originals are in a fire safe box and not on my wall.
I can’t wait to get a couple of sets of these hangers.