 Hi, my name is Mariana DiCiacomo and today I am going to show you that everyone can work on salvage of frame photographs if you are in an event in which you would need to, for example, during a flood, during hurricane or some of those nasty events that sometimes we have to go through. And so the reason for this video today is to actually empower you and show you that you can do it yourself. So the first thing that you have to do when you are in this circumstance is to think of your safety first. And that is why we have a bunch of things in this table that will show you what you will need. Respirator, face mask, things like that will help you in the case of the presence of mold. During this video I would be wearing this mask, but for sound reasons I'm not going to, but keep in mind that this is a very, very important thing for you to wear. What I will be wearing though are gloves. Gloves will protect you from anything that may be in any standing water during these events, but also they will help you in case there's any glass or other debris that can be harmful. These gloves are not going to protect you a lot from glass, but they will be your first barrier in case any of that happens. Ideally, again, I would be wearing something like this, but so I can look you in your face, I'm not going to do that. So what do we do in case of one of these events? You're going to see that all your cherished memories are in water and that is going to be a very stressful time and you will want to rush and start saving things and we will tell you to stop. That's the first thing you have to do. You have to stop and think about what the problem is, assess the situation and get a lot of supplies that will help you succeed. Because if you don't do that, then you're going to rush in this process. Things are going to start drying and they're going to start drying the wrong way and then you won't be able to save your precious memories. So what I would recommend always is to have a container that you can pour some clean water into in case you need to rinse any of these framed photographs. But the first thing to do, grab your phone and start taking photos. So it doesn't matter in which condition you take these photos, go ahead and take a lot, document as much as you can. And the reason is that sometimes, unfortunately, we cannot save all these photos and that is why having a digital copy of these photos will at least give you that memory back in case the original material is lost. So when we're looking at the frame photographs, the biggest issue is that they are framed and they are framed to protect them from dust and from other things that may be in your house. But when water comes in, the problem is that now they are trapped in this frame and so they're encased and what are the issues with that encasement? First of all, the glass. The glass can be very problematic because it can stick to the photographs and so if it sticks to it, then it becomes much harder for you to be able to save that image. Another issue is the fact that you will have a frame and the construction of that frame, a lot of the times we hire this out, you go to a place and they will frame this for you or you will buy any of these frames at any store that you can and so you did not build this frame so you don't really know how it was built. So that can be a little problematic if things have nails or have any other metals that could have rusted and so that is quite dangerous and you have to protect yourself. And again, the glass that can stick to the photographs, sometimes also the glass can break. If the glass breaks, then you are at risk of hurting yourself. So first things first, protect yourself, take a lot of photos and then we can start the process. So if the water in which these photos is clean, then you can go ahead and remove the photos from the water. They are not going to be in a good state. You're going to go through a lot of emotions while doing this, but you have to try to be calm and swift while you're doing this. And for example, here we see that this frame already has some damage and you're going to remove the photos from this water situation and you're going to put them in a clean area. That area can be a towel, it can be paper towels, any absorbent material that you can use to get rid of this water will help you a lot. And so you can start by drying the photo so that you can start working around that. And so once you see the situation and you will see that this is completely wet, then you can start thinking about how do I remove this frame and how do I make then the photo come out of this encasement in which it is in. So again, first things first, you put it on a surface and you take a photo and once you take that photo, then you have that memory captured in your phone. And if anything happens, again, you may be a little sad, you may be emotional and in those times, sometimes it's better to step away, go out, take a breather and then come back in and start the process again. So the best thing for those photographs is for you to stay calm and then act accordingly. This frame in particular, so it slides out. So those are sometimes quite problematic because you don't know if the photo is stuck to the glass or stuck to the back. So you have to start moving it and seeing what happens. In this case, the photo is stuck to the back and it is moving with me, but the glass is making it more complicated. So sometimes you would have to grab the photo and see if you can remove it. If you can't, one option is to get pliers and start moving this metal and opening it so that you don't damage the photo. But you have to also keep in mind whether that frame is sentimental or not. And so all of those considerations are things that you have to think about. And so now that I helped release the photograph a little bit, it comes out beautifully. And again, we have to be very careful with the glass so that it doesn't break on your hands. And since the photo is pretty much okay, we can see if we can separate it from its backing. And why do we do this? Because this backing in this case is cardboard, and so we don't want this cardboard that can get moldy to be in touch with this photograph and maybe can stick to it. And so if you are able to release it from this cardboard, we would recommend that you do and see there's another layer. You can remove that layer and you can set the photograph to dry. And this is a case in which we could do this because the water, let's say, was clean. But what if the water is not clean? What if you're looking at your photographs and they're all stained, there's mud and there's other debris? What you should do in that case is remove the photograph from the water and rinse it in clean water. You will think it's counterintuitive to get it wet again. But the best thing is, if it's already wet, wet it right away. Don't let it dry and then put it in the water again. It is already wet, so the damage is already done. So the best thing is to rinse it in clean water and start the process all over again. And finally, as I was saying before, you may have an issue with broken glass. And this is the hardest thing to work on because you don't know if the photograph is attached to this broken glass or not, or what is the situation with the backing. So my recommendation would be to start very slowly. And if there are pieces of glass that are detaching or falling, just let them fall. And instead of putting your hand like we were doing with the other, you can use barriers. So in this case, I would set this down and use barriers so that you don't get hurt. And then you can start analyzing the situation, always protecting yourself first. Try to figure out how you're going to do this. In this case, this is screwed in. So screwdriver is your best friend in this case to try to protect this photograph. And so in this case, we would be working upside down. We would set it down. We would get the screwdriver, release this photograph from its backing, and then see if it is attached to the glass. In the case in which a photograph is attached to the glass, what you should do is set it to dry on the glass. Do not try to pull it because if you do, then it will be damaged. So now that you're dry, now that you've been waiting and letting things dry, what do you do next? Well, more photos. At every stage of this process, you should be documenting your photographs. Take as many photos as you can, because again, if something cannot be saved as material, you can still be saved digitally and you won't lose that memory. And so take a lot of photos of everything. And for example, if anything was stuck to the glass and you couldn't remove it, flip it over. If the glass is dirty, you can go ahead and wipe it down. Once you wipe it down, you take more and more photos. And then the next question is, what if you need help? What if you cannot do this by yourself? You feel like you're overwhelmed on that. You have a photograph that is too large or something that is too precious for you that you don't feel confident doing yourself. Well, you have two options. One of them is to go to culturalheritage.org and go to find a professional. And there you can find a person that is a professional in conservation of photographs. You can search by your area and that will tell you who to contact. But also you can contact local museums or other collections that may help you or assist you or point you in the right direction. How do we prevent this from happening in the future? In the first place, what you should do is use something that would prevent the photograph from sticking to the glass. A spacer of any sort will really help you in this case. Second, maybe we shouldn't store photographs that are very precious in a basement or in an attic, but also if you're displaying them around your house, consider where you're doing that. If it's in a wet environment like a bathroom or a kitchen, maybe you should display a copy. And that goes for all photographs that are very, very precious to you. Maybe a copy is a good idea instead of showing the real deal. Always, always keep it digital copy of all your photos. You can get them scanned professionally or you can do that yourself.