The Quest To Rescue Beijing’s Trashed Photo Negatives

It’s a Sisyphean task, but Thomas Sauvin has already saved about half a million photos from the trash.

via NPR.org: http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2013/06/20/193834402/the-quest-to-rescue-beijings-trashed-photo-negatives?ft=1&f=97635953

What happens to trashed negatives if Sauvin doesn’t get to them first? In China, at least, they’re collected, dropped in acid (along with old X-rays), and what remains — the silver nitrate — will fetch a decent price.