Anna Atkins Cyanotypes

A big, beautiful book filled with Botanical Blueprints. At the dawn of the Victorian era in her open-air laboratory in Halstead, Kent, Anna Atkins embarked on a radical experiment to document botanical species using a completely new artistic medium. The inimitable cyanotype photograms of algae and ferns she created were made into the first books to feature photographic images. Striking yet ethereal, these albums are a perfect synthesis of art and science.

The first woman to use the fledgling medium of photography for scientific purposes, Anna Atkins captured the delicacy of algae and ferns in her albums: pioneering examples of photographic practice in their own right. For the first time, this edition reprints her works British Algae and Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns in their entirety.

Famous First Edition: First printing of 7,500 numbered copiesHardcover in slipcase, 9.6 x 12.0 in., 5.62 lb, 660 pages