

If they are wet, gently blot or shake off the excess moisture, and lay them flat to dry. If this is the case, you will need to move quickly to save your photos. If your photos have damage caused by a fire, then they may have additional water damage. Your pieces could be fragile and will need to be reviewed by a conservator. Be careful in your handling, stabilize your pieces, and call a conservator.The Library of Congress suggests putting a flexible screen, like a window screen, on top of documents to protect them and make it easier to vacuum. You also run the risk of wiping off pieces of the image, especially if the photo is a crayon portrait. Do not brush soot off an object, but you can vacuum without the brush attachment and on a low setting.“Do not use water-or any other cleaning solution! Water will drive soot and ash further into the surface of your item, and they will become impossible to remove.”.Gloves will protect the photos from the oils on your hands, and the masks will protect you from breathing in hazardous materials. Wear protective latex gloves and masks ( everyone should have these by now).Here are a few tips for cleaning from FEMA:
Photo cleaner for pictures stuck together how to#
If you start cleaning without knowing what type of photo you have or how to clean it, you run the risk of damaging the piece further. Your first impulse with any and all smoke damage is to clean. Smoke damaged photos may look and smell terrible, but there are ways to restore and preserve what you have. It’s easy to look at the damage and immediately despair, but take a minute to breathe. Fire and smoke can cause dirt and grime as well as discoloration, crazing, photos stuck together, physical damage, and more. They absorb the elements that surround them, and an element like smoke can do more damage than make a piece dirty.

Photographs, documents, and art are impacted by the environment around them. In fact, smoke damage can come from a number of sources including: When people think of smoke damage to photos, their first thought goes to a house fire.

That being said, one common type of environmental photo damage that cannot always be prevented is smoke. Variable factors that cause damage like humidity, temperature, storage, and more can be controlled to at least some degree if not eliminated entirely. Why? Because it can almost always be prevented. There are several types of photo damage, but environmental deterioration has to be one of the most heartbreaking.
