Anna Atkins - Cyanotypes

Anna Atkins was a botanist in the 18th century, and she essentially invented photographic process. Looking for a way to document plant species more efficiently, as a botanical artist herself. Using light sensitive chemicals, she experimented with chemical mixes and exposure time, and created this effect. Her work is beautiful, and as these plants are seaweeds they are partly translucent and the light seeps through in a unique way, creating dimension, depth and texture. The blue is also gorgeous tonally, as apposed to your traditional In response to her work I bought some sun print paper to attempt the technique myself. I shall analyse and document my experience on another blog post.