Anna Atkins - Blue Prints

Anna Atkins: Blue Prints, by Rolf Sachsse / ISBN 9783777438283 / 72-page hardcover, 5.25 x 8 inches, recently published by Hirmer (DE), English edition *** This exquisitely designed volume presents the work of a woman whose work at the forefront of photography has been too long ignored. The English illustrator Anna Atkins (1799–1871) was an early innovator in the history of photography. For the publication of her collections of plant photography, she used the latest technology, the recently invented cyanotype. In 1843, she used the process to create the first book to be illustrated with photographs in history, with images of breathtaking beauty and originality which often look like modern art. At first, Atkins worked for and with her father, the zoologist John George Children; later she chose the objects for her scientific compositions herself: algae and ferns. Atkins placed them on light-sensitive paper that turned dark blue in water after being developed, with the exception of the pl