To sign or not to sign ?

[Chataignier]

At our recent exhibition in Limoges I noticed that certain photographers had signed their work discretely, some had not. I raised the question with a few other members and opinions differed as you might expect.
Several said absolutely not - exhibition prints should not be signed, one even said he would not consider buying a signed (ie defaced in his view) print. Others said painters normally sign their work, photographers should too.
What do you think ?

[DanK]

Most art is signed, and likewise, most photographs for sale in galleries, etc., are signed. Some people sign on the mat, which makes no sense to me because it can be removed. Some sign on the back so that it isn't visible. Many sign on the front. All of my prints in the gallery that shows them are signed on the front at the bottom right, with a title at the bottom left.

The signature is on a white border on the paper below the printed area, so anyone who doesn't want it showing can cover it. When there is no signature, prints are often framed with no white border and with approximately 3 mm of the mat board overlapping the image. Doing that with a signed print would hide the signature.

Signing prints on the front is so common that there is even a convention for how to do it: pencil on fine art papers, indelible ink on coated papers.

In some cases (certainly not in the case of my work), purchasers want to show that their work is the real thing and want a signature.

The one thing I would never do is sign on the printed area itself. Even though painters do that, I would consider that to be defacing the photograph.

[Manfred M]

This really varies a lot and depends on what the print is to be used for:

In competitions or submissions to curated displays the the requirement is often that no identifying marks are allowed on the print.

In shows at galleries, especially if the photographer is planning to sell the prints, then a signature to authenticate the work of the photographer, then this is generally desirable, especially if the photographer is well known in the field. Here as signed piece, usually on the print border is mandatory. A signed matte makes no sense as it is all too easy to change one print for another. There are some that sign on the back of the work, but that is not a particularly common practice where I live.

Signatures on rag papers tend to be done with a hard pencil and coated / luster papers are signed with technical pens.

Logos or digital signatures are sometimes found on retail products. They are also found on the mattes. These indicate lower end products.