We went through mom’s old albums the couple of weeks before she died at 94. Her mind was still sharp as a tack as she went through the photos all the way back to when she was three years old. Names of friends and all of the stories. We were very lucky. And most of the old black and white photos were probably as sharp as the day they were taken. The color ones from the seventies weren’t the greatest iirc.
Color dyes, with the exception of dye transfer, will fade far, far sooner than metallic silver.