Fading Photograph

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Roxanne Langley

CGF, Certified Grumble Framer
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Sep 14, 2000
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Woodlands, TX
Had a client bring in an autographed black and white photo of DiMaggio, Mantle and Williams. The signatures are fine, however for some reason the photo has started fading in a rather bizarre way and we're trying to find out if we can stop it or what may be happening. They purchased it from Marshall Fields about 3 years ago and up until 7 months ago, everything was fine. Now the dark areas are turning almost a dark mustard color and it literally looks like it is creeping outwards into the other dark areas of the photograph. The area around the signatures do not seem to be affected.

I have digitals of it if any of the conservators or if any of you have ran across this before. I have told the client that he should probally at least have it photographed at this stage to document the possible demise of this image. Any ideas as to why this may be happening?

Roxanne Langley
 
I would venture to guess that it was printed in a dark room, the signatures are on the actual photograph across their chest and by the look of the uniforms date back before digital.
 
Sorry, I can't really help you with the fading photo question, and I know you are serious but I can't help myself.....

Flipping channel the other day and stopped on "Back to the Future" Remember? Michael J Fox, anyway they were looking at a poloroid and everytime they changed something in the past that effected the future that portion of the photo began to fade. (key: erie music) :icon19:
 
I had the same problem with an autographed 8 X 10 glossy of Annie Sprinkle, which she gave me when she was a client. I matted it in a triple alphamat with a foamboard backing. A few years later, it started to go brown and silver. Outgassing from the foamboard? Non-use of unbuffered rag board? I dunno. Maybe Mr. Phibbs can weigh in on this one. BTW, it was never in direct sunlight.
 
I think we've had this situation come up here before. Seems the answer was a chemical one- not using fresh developing chemicals, insufficient rinsing, or something like that.
My brother hs an 8x10 glossy of the Beatles doing the exact same thing- it started years ago. In this case, it actually makes the photo look kind of "psychedelic" like the famous Richard Avedon portraits of the Beatles from Life magazine.
:rolleyes: Rick
 
Same case here, never in direct sunlight and definately has that psychedelic look happening. I guess the nice part is that the signatures aren't affected, at least for the time being.
 
If the signature is in tact but the image is fading, I would bet the farm (yours, not mine) that during processing that either they used exhausted fixer or had an incomplete wash cycle and failed to remove the fixer completely.

I believe that if you could re-fix and re-wash the print that would retard the yellowing, but depending on what inks they used in the signature, it may remove or distort the autograph.

You might find the link to Kodak and describe the problem (or, maybe, they have a FAQ you could access), but there probably isn't a whole lot you can do to restore the original.

Scanning and doing a simple color correction in Photoshop would make it more pleasant, but duplicates aren’t originals.
 
From my notes on photography:

All silver based photographs are subject to sulphur damage. This will appear as yellow/brown stains and overdarkened blacks (tarnish). Light areas may fade, and the image tone shift to yellow/green. Some sources of sulphur are poor processing (thiosulfate fixers), poor quality storage papers and paperboards, rubber based products (e.g.some adhesives, rubber bands) and air pollution.

Oxidation can cause silver based photographs to yellow. This is usually caused by insufficient fixing, which leaves residual silver salts in the paper, or by insufficient washing.

The silver particles in gelatin emulsions can, under humid conditions, migrate to the surface of the photograph where they are vulnerable to chemical deterioration. This is why silver gelatin prints and negatives are prone to “mirroring”. This condition is generally caused by external oxidants – peroxides produced by poor quality contact papers, ozone from air pollution and photocopiers and plain old atmospheric oxygen.

High humidity and temperature accelerates deterioration.

Rebecca
 
Does this one looks like the damage Rebecca just described under sulpher damage, about high humidity problems? I keep it in the counter portfolio as an example of damage caused by lack of mat/spacers....glass directly on photo...that isn't sweat pouring down his forehead! the actual photo is much more orange than this shows:
Fading.jpg
 
No. It's Reverand Somebody-Or-Other from a local church.

Sure looks like him, doesn't it?
 
Same coloring, however mine is happening in the darkened areas such as shadow lines under the cheek, belt, dark pin stripes on the uniforms. There is mirroring going on in the darkened sky area above the guys.
 
That one has the metallic look in the dark areas also, and the orange is much darker, you just can't see it in the translation here. Spooky-looking! I've never seen anything like it, but the drip marks are a dead give-away that moisture/condensation was the problem. It had the glass directly on it, hanging in a building that is heated only on demand...cold-warm-cold-warm, and you know what happens with that.....Reverand Somebody-Or-Other gets wet!
 
Roxanne you are getting what is known as the Sabattier or solarization. This tends to happen in certain areas, like pin striping and things like that. It is a positive/negative image at the same time. This is the beginning of the change. You will most likely start to see colors appearing soon. If this image is to be saved it would be wise to have someone who knows photography-not digical photos, but traditional darkroom techniques re-fix and wash the image. If done correctly it could stablize the shifting that is occurring. Now this is my info and you should of course refer to Hugh and Rebecca in this case. Always refer to a conservator. They must first assess the situation and see if it is wise to do so in your case.


PL
 
How about contacting Marshall Fields and see what they have to say about it?
 
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