By: Jordan Bowles

Anna Atkins was born in 1799 and passed away in 1871. She was one of the first female photographers that is known about today. Atkins was a young woman who was well educated and had experience with art, specifically lithography. Over the span of her lifetime she published various books and volumes, as well as produced illustrations for books published by others in her circle. Atkins learned about photography directly from John Herschel who knew her father, John Children, from being a member of the Royal Society.[1] She is most widely known for her photographs of various species of algae which she found near her home along the coast of Britain. Her book British Algae is widely known as the first time an author used photographs in a scientific text.[2] While Anna Atkins did not set out to change the history of photography or acquire a name for herself based on her photographs, she ultimately did both of these over the course of her lifetime.

Anna Atkins began experimenting with the art of photography and specifically the cyanotype with the purpose of cataloging the various species of algae that she had collected outside of her home. Atkins had always been interested in both science and botany as well as art forms such as drawing and photography. She entered into this endeavor with no expectations of making an income or gaining fame and recognition from the publishing of her book.[3] Before she began photographing for her own book, she had produced illustrations for other’s books such as her drawings of shells for the book Genera of Shells written by Lamarack in the early 1820s. Her drawings show great precision to detail as well as talent in the area. These characteristics would later be evident in her photographs as well.

Atkins was a member of the Botanical Society of London starting in 1839.[4] During this time period, women were often “encouraged to study plants and flowers because it was perceived both as ‘aesthetically concordant with feminine beauty’ and as a pedagogical tool that created a ‘path to piety and health’.”[5] She used her connections there to acquire various other species of algae from friends that she was unable to obtain on her own. This was frequently a way for people, especially women, to obtain more species or subjects. Anna Atkins was neither a public figure nor an established artist[6] when she started out on her journey of photography. Even as her photographs circulated in society and her books were published, her pieces of art were not originally praised and recognized as they are today. However, those who did receive British Algae often “praised her dexterity with the medium”.[7] With these considerations in mind, one is able to see how amateurs in the field often contributed a great deal more to the evolution of the photographic process than likely anyone realized at the time. This is especially true for those female amateurs as their work was often associated with the private and domestic world rather than the public.

Every photograph that Atkins produced for her book was an impression of various algae species along the British coast. In her photography she paid vivid attention to not only beauty, but she also had great artistic ability and skill in the composition of her photographs. She used the technique known as cyanotype, one of the most resilient early photographic processes, developed by John Herschel, for all of her impressions. With this technique she was able “to combine scientific exactitude with aesthetic sensitivity to form and presentation”[8] While admiring Anna Atkin’s photograph titled cystoseira fibrosa captured in 1834-44, one is able to see not only the deep Prussian blue hue produced by the method, but the algae clearly and in great detail expressed on the paper. These details are evident in all of her photographs, such as her cyanotype ferns taken in the 1840s, in which each leaf is crystal clear, to the extent that we can clearly make out various species. When she decided to use the cyanotype method to photograph her collection of algae, her goal was “not to advance research in photography or promote the commercial potential of the media. Rather, Atkins recognized the cyanotypes as a useful tool to solve the problem of reproducing a large number of images simply and efficiently”.[9] The manner in which she was able to capture the curve of the algae demonstrates to the viewer how flexible it is and the way the buds appear to lift off of the page and reach outwards gives it a lifelike essence. Each and every one of her photographs has this lifelike quality to it. Once she had compiled her photos for her book, it was considered to be the first book that was produced entirely via a photographic process.[10]

While Anna Atkins’ entrance into the photography realm was not influenced by capitalism or monetary motivations, she definitely effected and was affected by modernism and its developments. Had Atkins wanted to pursue her photographic interests earlier and had the equipment been around, it is unlikely she would have been able to based on the societal views of women in comparison to men and their place in the public eye. Atkins first installment of her book, British Algae, predated Talbot’s work by several months even though it was not completed and published until 1854, while Talbot’s book The Pencil of Nature was published in 1846. Because of her success and perseverance in the field, Anna Atkins was able to bring females into the modern age of photography and create a space for their creations outside of their homes.

All in all, Anna Atkins was a talented photographer & botanist who was not only able to capture explicit detail in her photographs using the calotype process, but who also left a lasting impression on the art form, paved a way for future female photographers, and contributed to its many applications as art and science. By publishing her book British Algae and taking up photography, Anna Atkins was “participating in two simultaneous cultural phenomena: experiments in photography and the more broadly popular study of natural science”.[11] Atkins was a botanist first and only viewed photography as more of a hobby or pastime. She ventured into the photography realm with no expectation of monetary gain or fame. While she was not properly accredited for her work in the field at the time of her publications, she has come to be known as one of the first female photographers who greatly contributed to the practice of photography as an art form.