Photo Restoration - Tear/Rip

[drcy]

Paul Messier (Paulmessier.com) is a world famose photograph conservator in Boston. There's another place in Chicago I can't think of that someone else may mention.

[MikeKam]

Originally Posted by drcy

Paul Messier (Paulmessier.com) is a world famose photograph conservator in Boston. There's another place in Chicago I can't think of that someone else may mention.

"World famous" sounds pricey haha. I've already had three quotes from local people here and one is completely out of my price range, while the other two are in it but there is not much proof of their work which has me concerned.

Thanks, I'll try contacting him and seeing what he says.

[Runscott]

Mounted Albumen Restoration

I've been playing around with restoring mounted albumen photos, and have had some success. I recently cleaned a couple that were very dirty and was surprised that the mount cleaned up some as well. I have also removed albumens from mounts and re-attached to either similar mounts or brand new ones.

The nice thing about mounted photos is that the mount protects the physical print - you can have totally trashed mounts with near-perfect condition prints mounted to them. You can then remove the print from the mount, cleaning the print in the process, then re-mount it to a new mount….or a vintage one. The only trick is finding a mat that matches up well, and re-creating any embellishments. But that's not impossible.

If anyone has candidates they would like me to look at, feel free to send an email. I can show you 'before and after' images and give an assessment.

[drcy]

I can testify that Scott restores pool cues and old fedoras.

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by drcy

I can testify that Scott restores pool cues and old fedoras.

And vintage Gloves!

[drcy]

P.s. I assume Messier would be expensive. He does work for museums.

Interestingly, he's also an authentication expert, in part, as a conservator, he knows all about identifying processes and the substances in photos. He's written numerous scholarly papers on photo dating.

[Runscott]

Basically, I'll try to restore anything except furniture and Joan Rivers.