Cyanotypes
Who was Anna Atkins? The cyanotype process was used most famously by Anna Atkins’s in her 12 part book British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions. This was the first book ever to be illustrated with photographs making her a real pioneer of the new art form. Cyanotypes were amongst the first ever kinds of photographs that did not require a camera. In essence, they describe perfectly the meaning of the word ‘photography’ - photo = light; graph = to draw. Therefore, photography = drawing with light. Atkins was an expert botanist and illustrator of plants. She discovered the cyanotype process after meeting the British inventor Fox Talbot. Atkins neighbour was the astronomer Sir John Herschel and it was he who discovered, in 1842, that when exposed to UV light (i.e. sun) a paper soaked a with a complex iron salt solution captured a blue “negative” image, once the salts had been rinsed away. For obvious reasons, Herschel named these prints Cyanotypes or blueprints. As well as the blue background which suggested the water from which her plants had originated, Atkins must have been pleased with the way the cyanotype process captured the tiniest and most subtle of details of the plants she was studying. What are the advantages of cyanotypes? The cyanotype process is relatively cheap and easy to use. A wide range of surfaces can be coated with the mixture of chemicals and you don't need a darkroom or any complicated equipment. Perhaps this is why artists are still using the process, sometimes to make quite large and unusual photographs. Some examples of cyanotypes For example, here is a mattress which has been soaked with chemicals and then used to capture the outline of a sleeping person. A set of tiles has also been used to create a puzzle like composition of plant forms. Finally, the curling forms of magnetic tape spilling from cassettes echoes the plant forms captured by Anna Atkins all those years ago at the dawn of photography. I have collected some more images on this Pinterest board. |