What does this young man expect you to do?? Does he think you can bring the pictures back to new?? Unless you can get the original photos, I don't know what you can do. The ink will wash off with regular washing. That is why I encourage quilters to put photos on a wall hanging. You can certainly quilt this quilt. I would do crosshatching in the white portions of the photos without stitching thru them, then do SITD and this time attach some binding. Good Luck. I made a special quilt for a former neighbor of mine whose son has cerebral palsy. I was disappointed because she never let him use it and it was displayed on a quilt rack.