My reading is that these large-format images are (necessarily) of the old fashioned wet-chemistry type, requiring a "chambre noire" (probably not "camera obscura" or pinhole in this context). Retouching is often necessary, but 19th C photographers used to tint B&W prints as well.

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Note added at 28 mins (2008-09-29 14:12:59 GMT)
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or for silver, read "bromide" or "silver bromide"

This was the subject of a previous Kudoz question: http://www.proz.com/kudoz/french_to_english/photography_imag...

Hope this helps

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Note added at 16 mins (2008-09-29 14:00:53 GMT)
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though I appreciate that is difficult given the words following in your source text.

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Note added at 1 hr (2008-09-29 14:50:35 GMT)
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Henri was an avant-gardiste as your source text says - the key thing about her work were her use of mirrors and panes of glass to create unusual effects. Since everyone at that time has to use a darkroom, I doubt it would be commented on here, nor do I think it is necessary to mention the silver bromide, since again this was in normal use.

"Florence Henri (born New York 1893; died Compiègne, Oise 1982) was a painter and photographer. She trained at the Bauhaus, an influential school of art, design and architecture in Germany in the 1920s and '30s that advocated functional art and design, and strengthened the link between manufacturing and artistic creativity. Henri began as a painter, but under the training of László Moholy-Nagy at the Bauhaus, she became interested in photography and used mirrors and panes of glass to manipulate her subjects. She worked freelance in Paris from 1929 to 1963 as a portrait, advertising and fashion photographer.

It was an exhibition of modern photographs organised by Henri that impressed Bing and inspired her to leave Frankfurt for Paris in 1930. Bing explained that at that point she 'saw there was another world'. Although Bing was insistently 'on the edge of the periphery of the Bauhaus' rather than part of the group, she said of Henri that 'we both have the sense of abstract composition' and admired her work. Bing's self-portraits may have been inspired by those of Henri. Bing and Henri lived in the same apartment block in rue de Varenne in the 1930s, although Bing denies much contact with her at that time."

http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/photography/features/photo_...


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Note added at 1 hr (2008-09-29 14:52:56 GMT)
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The key thing about her work * was *, not * were * - no Yorkshire intended here.

This is truly a guess, but is it possible "à la chambre" means here "in a studio" as opposed to outdoors/in the field - ie something like the Latin "in camera"?

Need to find support for this of course, but just a thought for another track.

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Note added at 16 hrs (2008-09-30 06:41:13 GMT)
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Though looking at the previous Kudoz... perhaps not! In which case the "grand format" is a piece of apposition...