Albumen

The albumen print was invented in 1850 by Louis Desire Blanquart-Evrard and was the dominant positive print process in the second half of the 19th century. Although Blanquart-Evrard is credited with the invention of the process and presented it to the French Academy of Sciences in 1850, many amateurs had experimented with and wrote about albumen prints before his announcement.

The term "albumen" refers to the mixture of egg white and salt coat that was applied to the paper before being sensitized. The layer of egg covered the rough and porous surface of the paper and resulted in prints with greater detail and a glossy finish, which could be increased by adding more coats of albumen. The albumen print, like the salted paper print, is a printed-out process. It has a warm reddish-brown color due to the small colloidal silver particles of the image. Because the albumen is not the light sensitive element, papers could be coated and set aside for printing at a later date, a characteristic that led to the sale of already coated paper and made photography available to the masses.

Blanquart-Evrard's original formula for albumen consisted of egg whites and salt. 25% by weight of a saturated salt solution was added to egg whites that were beaten to a froth and allowed to sit overnight. The paper was floated on top of the mixture for a minute and hung to dry. The paper could then be sensitized with a silver solution, which reacted with the salt in the albumen to produce silver chloride. A hype solution fixed the image after exposure.

There were some difficulties with albumen prints, such as impurities and inconsistency among paper, the tendency of prints to fade or shift color, the possibility of the albumen coating cracking as it ages, and foxing, or brown age spots on the paper medium. Improvements were made, however, as experimenters worked with fermenting the egg whites, often by adding acid, to achieve glossier coats and finer detail. Experimenters also developed alkaline gold toning, which gave a wider range of image colors and increased durability and resistance to fading.

 An albumen print with alkaline gold toning

The new photographic technology of stereographs and cartes de visite increasted the demand for albumen paper. The fine detial of the paper made it ideal for images that would provide the illusion of three-dimensional reality in the stereograph, and the ease of use and accessibility of albumen allowed "card pictures" to be made cheaply with images of people, places, and things.

 An albumen carte de visite (left) and stereocard (right).

Elizabeth Goins, first draft of albumen chapter
Reilly, James M. The Albumen and Salted Paper Book: The history and practice of photographic printing, 1840-1895. Light Impressions Corporation. Rochester, 1980. 

http://albumen.conservation-us.org/

http://www.rleggat.com/photohistory/history/albumen.htm

The albumen mixture we used was made by the class with three simple ingredients:

• 500ml of egg whites saved after separating eggs
• 3ml of vinegar
• 7.5g of salt

The mixture was shaken until frothy and left to sit for a couple days. 

The albumen was strained through a cheesecloth before we coated the 100% cotton rag paper by letting the pieces float on the solution, which needed to be free of air bubbles. Each person made two pieces of paper with one coat of albumen and two pieces with two coats of albumen. 

For the two coat pieces, the first coat was left to dry by hanging the paper by the corner before being dipped in an alcohol bath, dried, and coated again. This gave the papers a glossier finish. The paper was then given a layer of light sensitive silver nitrate solution.

We exposed the papers for about 7 minutes with green negatives made outside of class. 

The papers were put through washes and fixed with hypo.

Unfortunately, my albumen prints turned out very streaky. The one-coat (top) was underexposed and lightened considerably during fixation. The two-coats (bottom) didn't produce any image. 

 My arrowroot image (top) was streaky also, but a there is a very faint image. The gelatin print (bottom) was my most successful out of the three processes.


I'm disappointed that I was unable to make a successful albumen print. I think the biggest factor is the need to improve my silver nitrate solution coating technique, which should reduce the streaking. It would probably also help to increase my exposure time. Despite the unsuccessful prints, it was interesting working with eggs, and although it's faint, the one-coat albumen print has an interesting texture and look with little circles where air bubbles were in the albumen mixture.