The use of albumen as a traditional artist's material is long and well established. Cennino Cennini in his Il Libro del'Arte, mentions the use of egg white or glair as a binder for pigments and as a varnish. As early photographers sought a suitable medium for the fabrication of prints and negatives, the use os egg white became inevitable. The outstanding result of this initial experimentation is the albumen print. As a first step towards understanding the properties and degradation behavior of albumen photographs, an overview of the involved proteins and their chemistry may prove helpful.