"Hundreds of photographs hang to dry at a laboratory, fragile reminders of birthday celebrations and summer vacations nearly swept away by last year's deadly floods in Spain. But thanks to a university-led initiative, many of these memories have been rescued from ruin. Decked in white lab coats and masks to protect themselves from mould and other contaminants, a group of students at a laboratory at Valencia's Polytechnic University carefully clean and restore photos."
"A sign next to a pile of mud-stained photo albums that sits by the entrance warns: "Do not touch. Contaminated material." Nearby, a pile of empty photo albums still bears traces of the mud that swept through parts of the Mediterranean region of Valencia during the torrential rains of October 29, 2024, killing more than 200 people and destroying thousands of homes. In the chaos that followed, a wave of volunteers rushed to help residents clean up the 800,000 tonnes of debris left by Spain's deadliest natural disaster in a generation and salvage what they could."
""We started getting calls from students who were helping in the affected areas and noticed that entire albums of photographs were being thrown away," said Esther Nebot, a professor at the university and the co-director of the project Salvem les fotos ("Let's Save the Photos"). "Those same students began collecting photographs in their backpacks," she added, pointing to the freezers where the damaged images were stored before being painstakingly restored. Since the project began, roughly 340,000 images have passed through the lab. Volunteers, students, donors and professors have restored about 75 percent of them."
Severe torrential rains on October 29, 2024 caused deadly floods across Valencia, killing more than 200 people and destroying thousands of homes. Volunteers and students collected mud-stained personal photographs and documents swept away by the floods. Valencia's Polytechnic University launched Salvem les fotos to clean, freeze, and painstakingly restore damaged images while protecting workers from mould and contaminants. The project processed roughly 340,000 images, with about 75 percent restored through efforts by students, volunteers, donors and professors. Contaminated albums remain quarantined and labelled to prevent health risks.
Read at www.thelocal.es
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