19th-Century Photography: Albumen Printing

19th-Century Photography: Albumen Printing -

At: Pundole’s Auction House, Ballard Estate, Mumbai; On: 3rd & 4th February, 2018

Albumen printing was invented in the early 19th century, and quickly became the most popular medium of the time. The process, which was in use till the 1920s, uses albumen from egg whites as a binding agent to adhere chemicals to paper and create a print. Our workshop happened over two days and was conducted by Arpan Mukherjee, Assistant Professor of Printmaking at Vishwa Bharati University, Santiniketan. On the first day, Prof. Mukherjee introduced our 15 participants to the history of albumen printing and explained the process. This was followed by a demonstration on readying the albumen-coated paper for printing, laying out the negative, and exposing it to sunlight. The participants joined in using negatives of their own photographs. The images dried overnight and by the end of Day 2, we had some very proud DIY photographers!