Cleaning "gunk"(?) off negative emulsions?

General Film Photography
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I’ve been restoring a few thousand old family photos that I pulled out of my family’s basement. Most are stored safely in sleeves. Some (like this one) have some weird gunk on the emulsion side of the photo, and I’m not sure what caused it. It’s causing a wavy, rippling effect in the image.

Before trying anything, I scanned the film as is just to preserve in case anything goes wrong.

I’ve tried soaking in distilled water for a while before hanging to dry for a few hours. When that didnt work, I moved on to try 99% rubbing alcohol with a lint free microfiber cloth, gently wiping in ine direction.

However, neither of these worked to clean the gunk off.

I’m not sure what it could be — it SEEMS like it’s only one the one strip (4 photos long), so I dont think it would be from developing chemicals, but I could be wrong? What else can I do to clean this off?

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As far as I can see on the image you joined,I suspect that you didn’t take the negative out of the sleeve or one side of it remained stuck to the emulsion side of the negatice, probably due to an excess of humidity at the time of storage.
If I’m right, try to soak the film strip in distilled water and some wetting agent during one or two hoours and the try delicately to separate the film and the sleeve. Hope it helps.