Saving curly photographs

[mdcarma]

Thru crappy storage technique, numerous moves, and different cardboard boxes over the last 36 years I have a bunch of photos, mostly from Viet Nam, that have a permanent curl, emulsion side in. They've also sucked up and stuck together. Negatives are long gone.
I was wondering how feasible it is to soak the photos in distilled water with a drop of dish soap to break the surface tension? Hoping the emulsion sticks where it's supposed to stick, and then flatten and dry between blotter sheets. A suggestion from a friend who does water colors. Any down side? As they are now they're totally useless, so I don't have a lot to lose.  Knowing my percentage I'm sure most are crap, but they all bring back memories.

[Don Day]

The dish soap is equivalent to Photo Flo; in the high dilution you indicated, it will not hurt.  But for best success, get some Kodak Print Flattening Solution or the like--it relaxes the paper fibers and conditions the emulsion.

While the items are soaking, you can rephotograph the separated prints underwater. Just get a piece of glass that you can lay on the photo to help hold it flat underwater, then position your camera in a standard copy arrangment (lights at 45 degree angles left and right of the water tray; camera mounted as parallel as possible above).  This is in case the re-drying step fails to relax the curl. This is an archivist's trick for getting a good copy of prints with tweed or textured surfaces.

After the soak, you should be able to dry the prints conventionally with less shrink than before (ie, on a drying drum or rolled in a blotter roll, face side out).

[Conrad Hoffman]

If you can get them apart, drying them flat is no problem. Unfortunately, I have to report that I've never successfully separated two prints without damaging the emulsion. Remember that the wet emulsion is terribly fragile, so unless the prints are falling away from each other already, pulling on them is almost guaranteed to pull the emulsion off. Sorry I don't have any better method to suggest.

[sandeha]

Agreed.  They have to float apart of their own volition.

[connealy]

I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.  Don't throw out anything just because of some restoration damage.  Sometimes the imperfections actually add a note of authenticity and interest.