Zeughaus in Berlijn 1882

Friedrich Albert Schwartz made this albumen print of the Zeughaus in Berlin, sometime in the late 19th century. The photographic process itself is key here. Albumen, derived from egg whites, gives the print its characteristic sheen and tonal range. But it's more than just a pretty surface. Photography at this time was a rapidly industrializing process. Chemical companies churned out the necessary materials, while studios employed legions of workers to prepare, print, and mount the images. Consider the labor involved in producing countless prints like this one. The photographer, of course, but also the anonymous hands that coated paper, mixed chemicals, and operated the printing frames. This image, therefore, is not just a representation of a building, but also a document of a particular moment in the history of mass production. It collapses art, industry, and social history into a single frame.