Come into contact

The contact is the earliest method of printing a negative in the darkroom and remains the most simple. The negative is sandwiched between glass and photographic paper, exposed to light and processed accordingly. Until roll films were introduced in the early 20th century, enlargements were very rarely made. While the technology did exist, the majority of large-format negatives in use, such as 8x10in, were contact printed.

A 19th-century process such as Albumen – one of the primary methods