13 new hires to recover photos for families affected by the DANA

21 January 2026 – Family photographs, home photo albums and amateur recordings are not just intimate memories. They are a collective heritage of great value, documenting everyday life, social relationships, celebrations, spaces and social transformations, and were seriously threatened as a result of the DANA.

To ensure the preservation of this heritage and speed up restoration and digitisation work, this year the Foundation has strengthened the human team of the Salvem les Fotos project with 13 new part-time hires, thanks to an investment of €200,000 from the Ministry of Culture and other contributions from different organisations that have also been channelled to this project.

These add to the 5 people hired during 2025 and the 30 incorporated by the Regional Museum and the Mancomunitat de l’Horta Sud through the DANA Employment Plan of the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy.

The Museu Comarcal de l’Horta Sud continues to be the main workplace of the project, consolidating itself as a reference centre for the conservation of photographic and domestic heritage affected by the DANA. Currently, it hosts photographs from 465 families from different municipalities in the region, with a particular focus on the most affected towns: 108 families from Paiporta, 67 from Catarroja and 63 from Aldaia and Picanya.

The work of the hired staff is complemented by a wide network of specialised volunteers, making it possible to carry out a project with a clear cultural, social and community dimension. In this regard, the Museu Comarcal de l’Horta Sud and the Fundació Horta Sud continue to make a call to the public to join the Salvem les Fotos project as volunteers.

Individuals or organisations interested can write to museu@museuhortasud.com to take part in the recovery and conservation of visual heritage. The collaboration schedule is Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and Tuesdays and Thursdays until 6:00 p.m., with a minimum commitment of two hours per week.

Salvem les Fotos, an initiative promoted by the University of Valencia and the Network of Valencian Public Universities, is part of the Recovery and Transformation Plan after the DANA promoted by the Fundació Horta Sud, with the aim of preserving the cultural, identity-based and emotional legacy of the region beyond material reconstruction. The project responds to the desire to protect a heritage that belongs to everyone and to accompany families in the process of mourning and recovering lost memories—a task that remains necessary, as, despite more than a year having passed since the DANA, much still remains to be recovered.

Exhibition

With the aim of giving visibility to this work and paying tribute to all the people who have entrusted their memories to the field laboratories of Salvem les Fotos, the exhibition “Memory and Resilience. Photography as a Testimony of Life” was inaugurated last November.

This exhibition is a tribute to the strength of collective memory and the ability to rebuild what once seemed lost, through the images that survived the DANA and the personal stories they safeguard. The exhibition can be visited Monday to Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., and Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Museu Comarcal de l’Horta Sud, in Torrent.