Albumen Print

© Charles Marville, Percement de l'avenue de l'Opéra : chantier de la Butte des Moulins du passage Molière, 1er arrondissement, Paris, 1872-1879. Tirage sur papier albuminé d'après un négatif sur verre au collodion. Reproduction © ARCP / Mairie de Paris

Historical period of production and use

Presented by Louis Désiré Blanquart-Évrard (1802-1872) to the Academy of Sciences in May 1850, it gained significant popularity among photographers between 1850 and 1900. This enthusiasm was due to the aesthetic qualities of this new technique, which, by embedding the image in a layer separate from the paper support, allowed for better definition, improved contrast, and richer tones.

Fabrication

A sheet of fine, high-quality paper is floated on a bath of albumen (egg white) mixed with sodium or ammonium chloride. Once dry, the albumen-coated sheet is sensitized by floating it on a solution of silver nitrate. The silver chloride salts formed in the albumen layer retain their photosensitive properties for only a short time. Therefore, the print is made quickly after its preparation, by direct darkening in contact with the negative in a printing frame exposed to natural light. The image has a very fine silver grain, with a brown-orange color. It is then usually toned, most often in a gold chloride bath, which gives it cooler tones, ranging from reddish-brown to purplish-black depending on the freshness of the toning bath. This process significantly improves the print’s preservation, reducing its chemical sensitivity. The toned print is then fixed in a sodium thiosulfate bath. Due to the thinness of the paper, to avoid tearing, warping, or curling, the prints are most often mounted on cardboard.

Credits

Visual Glossary of Photographic Processes © ARCP / Mairie de Paris, 2023