DAY 182

HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Cyanotypes

PHOTOGRAPHY SINGS THE BLUES

English Scientist Sir John Herschel, while conducting experiments with iron, discovered that a number of iron compounds are light sensitive. Many iron printing processes were developed as a result of this finding, with the most popular being the cyanotype, which is also known as the blueprint, or ferroprussiate process, because the resulting images have a blue tint.

A botanist, Anna Atkins, who knew Herschel and his work through her scientist father, had learned about making photograms from none other than calotype inventor William Henry Fox Talbot, a friend of her husband. Atkins saw the potential benefits of using photography as an aid to her studies of plants. She combined the two processes by placing plant samples onto cyanotype-treated paper and exposing them to sunlight, which resulted in cyanotype photograms of algae, seaweed, ferns, and other plants. The resulting images were later published in the 1843 book Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions.

Atkins is widely considered to be the first female photographer, and her book, while published privately rather than commercially, is thought to be the first that combined photographs and text. Atkins eventually produced three volumes of the book. Though she is reported to have owned a camera, it seems as if she worked exclusively in noncamera-based photography. —DJG