Huizenrij aan de Javastraat in Den Haag

Andries Jager made this albumen print of the Javastraat in The Hague sometime in the 19th century. To produce this image, Jager would have coated paper with a layer of albumen, derived from egg whites, then sensitized it with silver nitrate. Contact printed with a negative under sunlight, the resulting print displays a warm sepia tone, with fine detail rendered across its surface. The albumen print was one of the first commercially exploitable methods of producing a photographic image on paper, and its development coincides with the rise of mass media and visual culture. The process could yield multiple copies of the same image. This availability democratized the circulation of images and the representation of everyday life. But the intensive labor required for the albumen print’s production also speaks to wider social issues of labor and consumption in the 19th century. Appreciating the craft and labor involved in the making of this photograph allows us to move beyond its role as a mere depiction and to grasp its full cultural meaning.