Plants: Cyanotypes

Cyanotypes were the first way of taking photos before the camera was invented. Cyanotypes use the sunlight to print the colour on a piece of paper covered with chemicals. They are also called blueprints or sunprints. They were discovered 170 years ago and it was Anna Atkins, a botanist, who brought the process into photography. She created a limited series of cyanotype books to document ferns and other plants. By using this process, Anna Atkins is regarded as the first woman photographer.
This year we made cyanotypes as Anna Atkins did in the past.