Anna Atkins: 250 Cyanotypes - The First Woman Photographer - Annotated Series

by Daniel Ankele, Denise Ankele, Anna Atkins (Photographer)

ANNA CYANOTYPES - THE FIRST WOMAN PHOTOGRAPHER Art Book contains 250 Digitally Restored HD cyanotype reproductions of British Algae and varied plant and animal photographs with annotation for all images and interesting facts page below. Book includes Table of Contents, Top 50 Museums of the World and is compatible with all Kindle devices, Kindle for iOS and Android tablets (use rotate and/or zoom feature on landscape/horizontal images for optimal viewing). March 16, 1799 in Tonbridge, Kent, June 9, 1871 at Halstead Place, Sevenoaks, Cyanotype PhotographyINTERESTING § Anna Atkins is credited as being the first woman to create a photograph.§ Atkins father John George Children was an honoured scientist.§ She illustrated her father's translated book by Lamarck, Genera of Shells.§ She is the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographs.§ Atkins learned calotype photography and the "photogenic drawing" technique directly from William Fox Talbot.§ She learned the cyanotype printing method directly through its inventor, astronomer and scientist Sir John Herschel, a family friend.§ Atkins produced a total of three volumes of Photographs of British Cyanotype Impressions between 1843 and 1853.§ In 1871, Anna Atkins died of "rheumatism, paralysis and exhaustion" at the age of 72.

Genres: Photography

267 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 11, 2014

Reviews

[Idyll · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books needs some context, since it does not come with any description. Anna Atkins, an early 1800s English botanist, was the first woman to create a photograph (and therefore also the first to publish a book with photographs). In this book, you will see her collection of 250 cyanotypes of various plant life.

Before her time, cyanotypes were used only to create blueprints. Whereas, Atkins was the first person to use them in photography, using a photogram process (photographing without the use of a camera). She would place her specimens directly on top of some light-sensitive material, and expose them to light. What you see therefore are beautiful negative images. Note: At this point, she owned a camera, but she thought cyanotypes showed more minute detail (especially with regard to translucence) on botanical specimens for scientific reference purposes. It was also more accurate than drawings.

Atkins worked along with Herschel - the inventor of cyanotypes, and William Henry Fox Talbot - the photography pioneer and the inventor of the "photogenic drawing" method, to develop this photogram process.

I haven't read the following books, but they seem to have more detail about her work and cyanotypes in general.

http://www.amazon.com/Ocean-Flowers-I...
http://www.amazon.com/Cyanotype-Histo...

(This year (2015), Google commemorated Anna Atkins' Birthday. Coincidentally, this also happens to be the year that the world's largest cyanotype was created in the waters of Miramar Beach. They chose an astronomy theme. The artists made some people lie down on light sensitive material with christmas stars and palm leaves strewn around, to create some kind of effect mimicking the galaxies! Herschel was also an astronomer. The theme was therefore [unintentionally] apt.)