A woman navigates a muddy street in Catarroja, Valencia, Spain, following the devastating floods on November 11, 2024. — Reuters
Among the few precious items Ana Piedra Carbonell managed to save from the floodwaters that destroyed her mother's house in Algemesi, an eastern Spanish town, was a mud-covered frame holding a wet, disintegrating photo. The image, capturing Carbonell with her mother, late father, and sister from years past, was the sole family photograph to survive the deluge, marking the worst floods in Spain's modern history. Fearing the memento might vanish, Carbonell joined other survivors seeking help from experts at the University of Valencia's 'Save the Pictures' project.
"It's the only keepsake my mother can have because my father passed away when he was 36, and my mother is now 74," Carbonell explained at one of the collection points established by the initiative. "Furniture and cars can be replaced... (Pictures) are material things but they reach an incalculable sentimental level," added the 44-year-old.
The project aims to restore and preserve damaged photographic heritage, returning it to flood-affected communities. One major challenge is the many photos that are stuck together, according to Marisa Vazquez de Agredos, head of the university's heritage department. Over 220 lives were lost after torrential rains on October 29 triggered flash floods that devastated Valencia's suburbs. The waters also inflicted extensive damage to buildings, property, and countless family photos and mementos.
Some survivors, like Carbonell, brought in individual shots. Pilar Jimenez arrived with her entire family archive, so extensive that a soldier assisting in the cleanup had to use a wheelbarrow to transport it. "I bring my whole life - my daughters when they were little, my wedding, I don't know, everything," said the 65-year-old from Aldaia, Valencia's suburb. She instructed staff to select and save what they could, rather than attempt to salvage everything.
"My father was very fond of photography, so I also have many photos of myself as a child. So it's a lot."
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