Even the mud and mud flooded the streets of Torrent when Ferradas, 21, decided to ride his bike to go home and collect loose photographs and complete albums shattered by the Dana who devastated Valencia on October 29. Lucia thus became the first volunteer of the program #Salvemlesfotoscoordinated by the University of Vàlencia. An initiative that was born two weeks after the catastrophe with the aim of restoring the snapshots that were destroyed, wet, stained with mud and impregnated with bacteria to save these memory treasures. Today, the project deals with the repair of approximately half a million photographs, including domestic albums and videos, provided by some 790 affected families.
Lucia’s house was not damaged after the passage of the flood by her people and felt the need to help the neighbors who were suffering the consequences of the Dana. “I learned about this UV initiative on social networks because I am a student of the degree of art history, but I wondered how they were going to be able to collect those photographs if in Torrent, for example, we were isolated, the bridges had fallen and the roads were cut,” says this student in a call with eldiario.es. It was at that time that Lucia contacted Marisa Vázquez de Agredos, the dean promoter of the project, and offered to personally collect the photographs. “People were concentrated in emptying their homes, taking out the mud of the garages or recovering their car. While I was going on a bike or motorcycle with my father for all Torrent and other victims, such as Aldaia, informing the project to take their photos to fix them, ”he recalls.
For a while Lucia accumulated and guarded the photographs in her own house. The terrace became an impromptu dryer where it tended them when they received them completely soaked and in the room he displayed a table where he was grouping albums and muddy briefcases full of images. Until finally, Lucia was able to move all that material to the Museu Regional of L’Horta Sud of Torrent, which became the first laboratory where to deposit and recover the photographs of #Salvemlesfotos. Throughout the month of November they opened six more, in Utiel, Algemesí, Alaquàs and two in Valencia, all in local museums, with the exception of one that is in the UPV conservation department.
A photograph is not considered a good of cultural interest (BIC), the State is not responsible for protecting these types of objects that can become so personal and important in someone’s life. “They are memories, of unforgettable moments such as a wedding day or a portrait of who is gone. We want to return the identity to that photograph that has been faded, has broken by moisture or has been broken in half, ”Rosina Herrera, a restorative specialized in photography that works in the Laboratory of Torrent along with eight other volunteers assumes. This expert reports that the photographs reach their hands in very poor condition.
People come with their history and cry with them, they tell you how they have lost everything, that this photo is the only memory they have left of a relative who has died
“The first step is to dry them, we have them lying in the courtyard of the museum. This phase can last months, except in some cases, we are still in this first stage and that is why we have barely yet delivered, ”says Herrera. After the drying, the washing with distilled water arrives, and then clean the mud with a soft brush. In addition, snapshots are being scanned and digitized, companies such as Kodak or Hofmann have donated computers and other devices to do so. “The complete process can be extended a year, but people are calm knowing that their photos are cared for. They have that halo of hope in recovering them as new, ”explains the restaurateur.
From stuck to the crystals of the frames to papers of very large sizes such as onlas. Each format they receive in the campaign laboratories is a challenge for the volunteers and workers of #Salvemlesfotos. But without a doubt, the biggest challenge is to receive the photographs. “People come with their history and cry with them, they tell you how they have lost everything, that this photo is the only memory they have left of a relative who has died,” says Herrera. The young Lucia believes that “they leave part of her life there”: “They give us their intimacy and we have the obligation to listen to them, they need to speak, to tell how they lived that day. We not only collect those photos, we link emotionally. ” The volunteer is excited to tell how the vulnerability and generosity of people feel. “They are surprised that we do this for free, some want to pay. We only ask that they pay patience because it is a lot of work and we are few hands, ”Lucia laments.
They give us their intimacy and we have the obligation to listen to them, they have a lot of need to speak, to tell how they lived that day. We not only collect those photos, we link emotionally
The director of the Museu Regional of L’Horta Sud, Clara Pérez, admits in a telephone conversation that they did not expect the project to acquire such magnitude. “Only in Torrent we have received the photographs of 343 families harmed by the Dana. This has meant that the museum cancels all its activity. We are the laboratory that has achieved the most material because we are closer to the zero zone and have been able to move here people from Paiporta, Picanya or Catarroja. ” This is a public initiative of the university, but Pérez clarifies that #Salvemlesfotos is also receiving financing, among others, from the Spanish Conservation Group of the IIC (GEIC) or the Horta Sud Foundation, which has also created a Donation campaign For the program.
Algemesí is another of the municipalities where a laboratory of restoration of these photographs damaged by the DANA has been established, the workshop has been centralized in the Valencian Museum of the party. There are around 250,000 snapshots provided by about 200 families. “All this opens a very interesting field of research, it is about studying the ethnographic and sociological part of these images in which they will be injured, but they are a perfect testimony of what we live on October 29,” the historian and director of the museum, àlex Villar, alleges by phone.
The local painter Josep Esteve, a neighbor of Algemesí, has been the first of this municipality to receive his photographs restored on Thursday, March 6. Many of them had great value for him because they show his artistic career. “I feel a very great joy and also a feeling of surprise because some already gave them for losses. It seems to me an exemplary project, I am very grateful to the volunteers who participate in the restoration, ”acknowledges Esteve.
I feel a very great joy and also a feeling of surprise because some already gave them for losses
Luis Manuel Caballero, 81 -year -old Valencian sculptor and ceramist, is another of the lucky ones who has also been able to collect his photographs damaged by the Dana in Algemesí. “These family photos are a very important accompaniment element for me. Above all to keep the memory of my wife Mari Carmen, who died a year ago, ”he explains. Caballero considers that “from here you can do inventive work on the stain that nature has left.”
The dimension of the #Salvemlesfotos program has acquired international interest. The prestigious American Conservation Institutewhere there is a specific group restoration group, has already wanted to be part and has sent work instruments from the United States. That is not all, in a few months at least one restorer of the Chicago Art Institute will come to Valencia to collaborate in the program.
But beyond the academic sphere, Lucia insists that this is “a human project”: “What motivates me to follow is to accompany families in their process to heal. Backing their meaning to their destroyed photographs is what drives me to work on this. ” The day next to the whole country was aware of the ability of unity and solidarity to a catastrophe. “We want to continue promoting that citizen participation,” Villar suggests. Thus, #Salvemlesfotos will continue to weaving chains of affection and offering a mechanism to repair pain, restoring not only photographs, but also the shared hope of those who have suffered the loss.
#Salvemlesfotos #Restore #memories #lifetime #passage #Dana
