Photographic Process 3.0: The Albumen Process
In part 3.0 of our photo process series we’re looking at the Albumen Process. We’re exploring the invention of the process and talking with our curators and historians, who help us put these processes into historical and cultural contexts.
The Albumen Process
As the predominant print method in the 1850s-1890s, the albumen print process introduced the rise of the great industrial photographic houses. Egg whites were a primary step in the Albumen process, therefore the earliest albumen-printing operations often had many chickens on site. Albumen photographs were precise, detailed, cheap and widely distributed. The albumen print brought photography into the beginnings of mass production and consumption.
Up next The Woodburytype, The Platinum Print, and The Gelatin Silver Print.
Tags: albumen print, Alison Nordström, ancestry, conservation, Jessica Johnston, Louis-Désiré Blanquart-Évrard, Mark Osterman, silver chloride process, silver nitrate, untold stories
Lisa Kribs-LaPierre is the Manager of Online Engagement at the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film.
