Anna Atkins

Anna Atkins born in 1799 was an English botanist and the first female
photographer. She was noticed for using photography in her books on various
plants. Her first work with photographic illustrations was called “photographs
of British algae: cyanotype impressions” which was published in 1843.

Ana Atkins came to know William Henry Fox Talbot who was a pioneer of early
photography and Sir John Hershel who was the inventor of the cyanotype
printing method. Both of these people influenced anna Atkins to do the work
she did.

Anna Atkins also practices took influence from nature and plants and created
her cyanotypes and created many different ones from many different plants
and used them in the books anna Atkins made.

Anna Atkins developed an interest in photography as a way of recording

botanical specimens for a scientific reference book. Instead of traditional
writing, the books handwritten text and illustrations were created by the
cyanotype method.

Anna Atkins is still well known as the world’s first female photographer. This
was because of the practice she did into creating cyanotypes for her books and
using plants to create them. Anna Atkins practise, developed a use of
alternative processes in her photography and the cyanotypes and books she
created.