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Memories and Mementoes Part One
Apr. 8th, 2018 08:10 amWhoever invented the self-adhesive photo album ought to be shot - and I don't mean with a camera, either!
This observation stems from my recent endeavours in sorting through the various stuff of life - you know, the stuff that often results (or at least comes into one's possession) from a death. It can be sobering to think that the main life after death a person may enjoy may be that person's photo, discoloured and damaged and now inseparable from the sticky and discoloured and damaged page without incurring further damage!
The offending album is one of many that we acquired after the death of my mother-in-law three years ago. I don't know how old it is but interestingly enough, it still had the little insert explaining how to use the thing. "Magic Magnetic Photo Album!" it proudly proclaims. "Eliminates Paste and Corners!" In reality, of course, it is neither magic nor magnetic. The horizontal adhesive strips which claim to help you place your photos correctly have turned an icky sticky shade of brown and the fold-over transparent plastic film which claims to give your photos "complete protection" has become brittle and ineffectual, not to mention being non-recyclable. As advertised, however, it does indeed hold photos "firmly in place" - so firmly, in fact, that if you actually manage to separate a photo from the page, it ends up with a staff of icky sticky horizontal brown lines across the back of the photo. My partner helpfully suggested just scanning the photos without bothering to remove them from the page but I have a couple of problems with that approach. First, many of them have helpful notes on the back elucidating when and where the photos were taken. Secondly, I'm rather fond of the actual paper photos and would prefer not to expose them to further damage through any contaminants leeching into them from the pages.
So what to do? With patience and perseverance I've managed to carefully ease most of the photos off of the goopy pages and when I'm done, I'll look at re-housing them in a more archivally sound manner.
This observation stems from my recent endeavours in sorting through the various stuff of life - you know, the stuff that often results (or at least comes into one's possession) from a death. It can be sobering to think that the main life after death a person may enjoy may be that person's photo, discoloured and damaged and now inseparable from the sticky and discoloured and damaged page without incurring further damage!
The offending album is one of many that we acquired after the death of my mother-in-law three years ago. I don't know how old it is but interestingly enough, it still had the little insert explaining how to use the thing. "Magic Magnetic Photo Album!" it proudly proclaims. "Eliminates Paste and Corners!" In reality, of course, it is neither magic nor magnetic. The horizontal adhesive strips which claim to help you place your photos correctly have turned an icky sticky shade of brown and the fold-over transparent plastic film which claims to give your photos "complete protection" has become brittle and ineffectual, not to mention being non-recyclable. As advertised, however, it does indeed hold photos "firmly in place" - so firmly, in fact, that if you actually manage to separate a photo from the page, it ends up with a staff of icky sticky horizontal brown lines across the back of the photo. My partner helpfully suggested just scanning the photos without bothering to remove them from the page but I have a couple of problems with that approach. First, many of them have helpful notes on the back elucidating when and where the photos were taken. Secondly, I'm rather fond of the actual paper photos and would prefer not to expose them to further damage through any contaminants leeching into them from the pages.
So what to do? With patience and perseverance I've managed to carefully ease most of the photos off of the goopy pages and when I'm done, I'll look at re-housing them in a more archivally sound manner.
