Anna Atkins

Anna Atkins was trained to be a botanist. She acquired an interest in photography through documenting botanical specimen. She used the cyanotype method to document plants. Her first documentation was called British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions. This was one of the first ever created books that the text and illustrations were created with the cyanotype method, not the letterpress printing method. She is also known as the possible first ever documented woman photographer.

Anna Atkins learned about photography directly through the inventor of photography,  William Henry Fox Talbot. She then learned more in-depth about cyanotypes and how to do them with the help of a family friend, Sir John Herschel.

This cyanotype shows Anna Atkins used the cyanotype both for the plant as well as for the words describing the plant. When properly exposed, she was able to show all aspects of the plant. For example, you can see the variance in color by the different shades shown on the paper. You can also tell what the relative density is and it is easy to record information based on these photos, especially back in the older days when they did not have as many options regarding photography.

Here is another cyanotype created by Anna Atkins, using the plant and the words to create the cyanotype. This one is really interesting because you can tell that the flowers were not very dense because they appear almost translucent while the lower leaves, and the flower bulbs which have not bloomed yet, appear to be denser and not transparent.

Annie Lopez was a woman inspired long ago by Anna Atkins. Lopez decided to begin making dresses using cyanotype patterns which are now featured in the museum located in Phoenix, Arizona.

Lopez used many patterns and the ideas of cyanotypes to make a new type of dress and incorporate her interest in early methods of photography as well as clothing to make a line of interesting and very unique dresses.