Damage to old photographs

dibkins

Howdy.
My dad is going through an old photo album he dragged out of somewhere. On the bottom of each page there is what I'm assuming is water damage, but I've read around of acid damage also. The photos are 35-20 years old and have been in the album for 'donkeys years'. Can anyone confirm that this is just damp or water damage, and if it will stop progressing of we store them more carefully - he now wants to cut the bottom off each of them 'to stop it spreading' which is think is a bit drastic.

Below is an example, the right hand edge below was at the bottom of the album.


Thanks,
Dibs

KTuohy

I'm not sure about what is causing the damage but if you are lucky to have kept original film I'd highly recommend getting a decent negative scanner. They can be a tad finicky but they're well worth the investment.

You could also consider scanning the prints with a good scanner and then getting someone to do a digital repair job. I've done a little bit before and it was a great success but it is time consuming and I'd assume you'd get charged quite a bit. It would be worth looking at some web services to find someone who might do a cheap resto for you.

Sorry I can't be of more use in terms of the actual damage to the prints though.