Well...
Easy question first...how I got into the field...
I was interested in restoration from highschool (the restoration of the sistine chapel) and during my first year of my art and art history degree I realised I didn't really want to be a starving artist (truthfully I wasn't into creating art for the inner meaning, I just wanted to create it for fun and to try new materials...I couldn't see making money at it). So at that point I decided to take the courses that I needed to point me in the direction of an art conservation master's degree and looked for opportunities to get experience in the field.
There is only one school with a conservation master's program in Canada so I applied and as luck would have it I got in.
So, Sharon, that's my story.
Now onto DJ's question about cracks and tears in prints....
As I said before it really depends on the type of support and emulsion. Let's say it is a fiberbased gelatin print with a tear. I would probably apply wheat starch paste (which is removable and non-staining over time) along the tear and re-align the tear followed by a repair on the verso with Japanese paper attached with starch paste. Sometimes there is some loss of emulsion and the loss has to be toned (colored) to match.
When a photograph has cracks a conservator is concerned with how they got there and what can be done to keep it from happening again and stopping the cracks from becoming flaking emulsion resulting in loss of image. Areas are typically consolidated to keep them from getting worse. With a gelatin photo the choice might be to apply warm gelatin into cracks and under flakes to reattach. And of course the cracks and losses can be toned to match.
I must note that a conservators approach to treating a photograph is much different than a restorer's (non-digital). The conservator's prime interest is to preserve the piece with a secondary interest in asthetic appearance. The materials they choose must be compatible with the piece, removable (when possible) and stable over time. They are not interested in tricking the viewer into thinking a piece is in pristine condition. For example when I say a loss is toned I mean that it is colored to match the tones of the image but not necessarily to disguise the loss. At a normal viewing distance the loss wouldn't stand out but on closer examination it would be noticable.
Ok enough conservation speaches for one night.
--Heather