Proof photos

[Jaznjjj]

Among the photographs I inherited from my mother was a small number of what appear to be photographers proofs for a portrait of myself as a young child - so about 60 years old.  They have deteriorated sadly as evidenced by the attachment.  My question is, how can I stop them deteriorating further?  It is obvious that I should not touch the surface!   I have the portrait they eventually chose in good condition, but it would be good not to lose the other ones.  Thanks, Jennifer

[PrueM]

Hi Jaznjj

Unfortunately the nature of proof photographs is that they will deteriorate despite most preventive conservation measures, because they were never developed with the intention of being kept long-term.  They probably were developed quite quickly, for a shorter time than normal and without the usual careful removal of the developer/stop/fixer that a permanent print would get.

The easiest thing to do is to scan them at a high resolution, as a tiff file, and see if the image can be restored somewhat (you can ask on the restoration board).  Keep the scans/restorations safe and sound, and then store them as best you can.  Photos like this can benefit from low-temperature storage, but this is usually not practical at home.  You can store them with a lot of good-quality paper packaging around them, to insulate them against the climate in your storage area, which will go some way to helping preserve them.  In the end, though, they will eventually deteriorate beyond the point of salvaging the image on them 

There are some help topics at the top of this board which will give you further info about preservation.  Here are some other links:

http://www.naa.gov.au/records-management/agency/preserve/physical-preservation/photographs.aspx#section6

http://www.archives.gov/preservation/family-archives/storing-photos.html

Prue

[Jaznjjj]

Thank you Prue, both those sites were useful.  I'll do a high res scan of all of the the proofs but will have to figure out how to scan as tiff not jpg.  I suppose I should regard myself as fortunate that the the images are still as good as they are after 60 years - they were stored in an envelope wedged with other photo packets and usually kept in a dark cupboard so the environment would have been relatively stable. The image I scanned and sent was the worst of them as I was not sure if the scanning would hasten the deterioration.  I am in the process of identifying and sorting numerous photos which have come into my care and have purchased/am purchasing the appropriate materials to store them properly.  This project is likely to take a long time!   Many thanks, Jennifer

[PrueM]

Hi Jessie,
Scanning/photocopying won't have any measureable effect on the photo so don't worry about that 
Good luck with the photo project - I've been there and done that and it does indeed take a lonnnnnnnng time! 
Prue