Leaving processed negs in cold water

[Matt5791]

Following my other thread about the flood which has hit the self storage facility I own (taking my Durst AC1201, stored there, with it) the flood ahs also had a very good try at destroying all my photos and negs from many years of my life, mainly teenage etc.

There are hundreds of photos, all wet, and I have to decide what to do.

I am thinking about dumping all the prints - many are already shedding the emulsion - and just concentrating on the negs.

Because of the sheer volume I am wondering if I can get away with "storing" them in fresh cold water while they wait to be finsed in rinse aid and dried.

How long might it be acceptable to keep them in water though?

Thanks for any help,
Matt

 

[Dave Miller]

My gut feeling is that the sooner they are washed and dried the better, but never having suffered such a catastrophe I cannot be more specific.

 

[Petzi]

As a rule of thumb, I would say it is definitely better to spend your efforts on the negatives, unless they are more damaged now than the prints.

You should try to dry them as soon as possible, perhaps by laying them out on sheets of paper, carefully removing drops of water with a soft cloth or tissue?

 

[Poco]

Be very careful, the emulsion on the negs may have separated off the base without really "lifting" off of it. Visually, things might look fine until you start swishing things around and then, disaster.

Personally I'd only give them a quick dunk in distilled water with rinse agent and hang them up. Then, once they're dry, experiment with a few select negatives (of different film types) to see how hardy they really are -- can they withstand a more thorough wash to get any dirt or stains off? Take it slow, except for the first step of getting them dry as soon as possible.

Good luck.

 

[Jim Jones]

Certainly start with the negatives, and the sooner, the better. I suspect cold water is best. Avoid prolonged immersion and sudden drastic temperature changes.

At least you're in good company. Ansel Adams suffered a darkroom fire in 1937. He, Edward Weston, and other friends managed to extinguish the fire. Then they dumped the water soaked and filthy negatives in a bathtub and began the long job of cleaning them. Some of his most famous negatives, including Clearing Winter Storm had permanent damage, but could still be printed. Maybe 5000 were totally lost.

 

[Gerald Koch]

I have had the emulsion on prints begin to dissolve after little more than a day in water. Part of this may have been bacterial action. I would dry the negatives as quickly as possible no matter what condition they are in and plan on treating them later.

 

[Matt5791]

With the help of my sister and wife we have now cleaned all the negs, and a few prints but dumped most of them.

The flood occured on Thursday, since when the negs have been in theit plastic strips all damp - I think I got to them in time and luckily virtually no damage to any of them!

Thanks for the advise.

Matt

 

[jim appleyard]

Matt, I hope all works out well for you and that you got to your negs in time.

Jim Jones story reminded me of what happened to much of Seneca Ray Stoddard's work. Stoddard was a photographer who spent much time photographing in the Adirondack Mountains in the Northeastern US. He saw many places in the Adirondacks before the invention of the auto and the creation of maintained hiking trails. Many of his glass plates ended up as window glass in a local greenhouse.