How to Safely Remove Retouching Paint from Antique News Photos

 Is it possible to safely remove retouching paint from antique news photographs? To enhance reproduction in low-res newsprint, otherwise beautiful, rare, black-and-white photo prints were painted on with black and white fluids in the 1920s to1960s. This is not pretty or interesting, covers details, and seriously impacts value to collectors. Thanks for any info you can provide. Thanks, Todd

To the best of my knowledge (I am not up on all the solutions used in that time-frame) most of the retouching fluids were solvent based so as not to interact with the image layer of the photograph. Which solvent would work to remove the paint requires training and a very exacting hand, otherwise, you could do more damage to the image than the paint is distracting. The best thing to do would be to consult with a photo conservator and, being in NYC, you should not have a problem finding one. You can get a list of names from the  Find a Conservator page at the American Institute for Conservation. A conservator who specializes in photographs would be able to tell you more as they have more direct experience with the  medium.

Good luck!