Portret van een onbekende vrouw, leunend over de rugleuning van een stoel 1874 - 1887

This is a photograph of an unknown woman, made by Albert Greiner. It’s an albumen print, a process patented in 1847 that quickly became the most common way of producing photographs. The process involved coating paper with albumen – that’s egg white – and then exposing it to light through a negative. The resulting print has a distinctive, slightly glossy surface and a warm, sepia tone. It's interesting to think about the sheer quantity of eggs that were broken to create the millions of albumen prints made in the 19th century. In a way, it was the perfect medium for the rise of industrial capitalism. It was relatively cheap, reproducible, and allowed for the mass production of images. This made photography accessible to a wider audience, but also raised questions about the value of artistic skill and the role of the photographer.