I have a lot of photos. Most of them were taken for the restraining order hearing, but the rest are of my children, wife, and various permutations thereof. There are a number of these photos that I’d like to print out and save forever and there are a few I’d love to hang on my wall for posterity. That’s where Fracture comes in.
Fracture is one of the most interesting and novel ways of creating a beautiful and lasting piece of photographic art I’ve seen in a long while. Fracture, a two-year-old start-up founded by two friends, offers a fairly simple service – you send them a photo and you get back that photo printed on a pane of shatter-proof glass. It comes with everything you need to hang or display the photo and it looks pretty great.
Printing on glass is as old as photography itself but Fracture’s methods are bit different than Ansel Adams negatives. The images are printed on the back side of a 2mm sheet of glass and will not fade for at least three years in direct sunlight and Fracture believes they’ll last for at least a decade with careful handling.
I sent a few images to Fracture and they sent a few demo shots and one of my personal shots back. The demos cam in multiple sizes, from the $8 8- by 5-inch to the $12 8×10. The largest size they sell is the $25 11×14. Most sizes include a mounting screw. You can see the sizes here.
The resulting photos are bright and glossy. There was a very light blending in some of the photo features but the surface is so clear that thin lines and imperfections really stand out. The best bet is a nice, close headshot with a uniform background as the glass really brings out detail in the shots.
The images are also a bit small but obviously you don’t want to slap a huge slab of glass up on your wall. These would work best in an office cubicle or on a desk. You could also take some arty shots and use them like decorative tiles along a wall but, as anyone can tell from my home office, I’m no interior decorator.
Again, Fracture has a few limitations right now but the concept is cool and the photos can, with the right shots, be striking. The company is only two years old so there’s plenty of room to grow but if you’re redecorating your penthouse apartment in the sky you could do worse than mounting a few handsome photos using Fracture’s clever method.
This week is Photography Week at CrunchGear!