Albumen Printing

Invented by Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard in 1847, the albumen silver print was the first commercially viable method of photographic reproduction on paper. Its key ingredient, albumen, is found in egg whites, which were used to bind photosensitive silver nitrate to paper. Once dried, the treated paper was exposed under direct contact with a negative, ideally with ultraviolet light, and then fixed with sodium thiosulfate to prevent overexposure. It’s science baby.