I have come into possession of a number of family photos, dating from about 1880 to the presnt.

They were found under a pile of decaying trash, and some have become stuck together, picture side to picture side. In one case, it's B&W stuck to color. Moreover, many of them have "black mold" on them, and possibly other mold as well.

So far, I've been able to gently seperate some of the photos by a gentle misting with distilled water and gentle pulling. Others -- well, they seem to be welded.

Any ideas on seperating these photos? And how to treat the mold?

(I can scan them and recover pictures from many, if not most, and I can send others to someone who can restore them even further. And yes, I'd like very, very much to recover as many as I can.)