This portrait of a smiling woman was made by the photographer using a Bourges screen, a method of replicating a so-called Benday print. Blumann’s article: Bendaying the Photographic Print, was published in the January, 1929 issue of Camera Craft magazine, with this portrait possibly dating to the period. The article is illustrated with two halftones showing a model photographically enhanced in the darkroom using these Bourges screens. (p. 4) The portrait at left in the article includes the cutline: “Line Screen Mask without removing pattern properly. A faulty, unpleasant appearance results.” There is a resemblance of the model used in this article with the portrait here, although a much finer Bourges line screen mask was used.

For reference, photographer Kathleen Dougan used one of these Bourges line screen masks for her photograph Mother & Child, seen on this website.