Hundreds of pictures hang dry in the laboratory’s storage area, fragile reminders of birthdays and summer holidays that were nearly swept away by last year’s deadly floods in Spain.
But thanks to a program led by the University, many of these memories have been saved from the block.
Wearing white lab coats and masks to protect themselves from mold and other contaminants, a group of students at Valencia’s Polytechnic University carefully cleaned and restored the images.
A sign next to a stack of photo albums with dots lined up by the door warns: “Don’t touch. Dirty stuff.”
Nearby, dozens of empty albums are still raining mud that washed away in parts of the Mediterranean region of Valencia during the heavy rains of October 29, 2024, which killed thousands and destroyed thousands of homes.
In the chaos that followed, waves of volunteers rushed to help citizens clean up the 800,000 tons of dust left by Spain’s once-a-generation natural disaster and save what they could.
“We started to receive calls from concerned parties and we saw that all the photo albums were lost,” said Ster Nebot at the university and director of the project Salvem Les Fotos (“let’s save the photos”).
He added: “Those same students started collecting the pictures on their back pages,” revealing that watermelons were kept where the damaged pictures were kept before they were painstakingly restored.
– ‘Too satisfying’ –
Since the project began, approximately 340,000 images have passed through the lab.
Volunteers, students, donors and professors gave back about 75 percent of them.
“The disaster caused a great loss at the documentary and historical levels, and above all at the social level,” said Nebot.
“A lot of things don’t have economic value, or even historical value, but they carry a lot of emotional weight.”
Using a small brush and a bucket of water to enlarge the folds, medical student Ruth Acuna cleans up a black and white image, showing the expression of a woman’s figure.
The 25-year-old, who has been with the Project since the beginning, said he knows the responsibility of managing the memories of families who have already lost a lot.
“Sometimes you see a picture and you think, ‘This is not going to survive,’ and all of a sudden it comes out right,” she said. “Very satisfying.”
– ‘a lot of crying’ –
On a nearby table, some students take out destructive albums or germs and clean, clean photos, which are hung to dry.
Very sensitive prints, especially black and white, are sandwiched between sheets of cardboard to prevent warping.
Some photos are so damaged that faces are almost unrecognizable. However, some have started to tell bits and pieces of life once.
“It’s very rewarding for clean pictures and, especially when they’re badly damaged, look at the face,” said student Baldwin, wiping the picture clean with cotton.
“It’s fulfilling to know that families can relive those memories together.”
In a nearby room, two students are digitizing and sorting photos, preparing them to be returned to their owners in the same format as their original albums.
Nebot, the project’s executive director, said the moment when the recovered photos are returned to families – some are in homes – is very emotional.
“We cried a lot,” she said.
“We set aside time to show them how we handle their photos, and it’s also a way of thanking them for their trust.”
Rs / DS / IMM / ACH
