Anna Atkins was a Botanist who could also be called a photographer. She was born in Kent, in 1799 and was taught information about photography by William Henry Fox Tabolt. She used chemicals and light to create the first accurate diagrams which could be considered photographs. She is thought of as the mother of photography. A Cyanatype is a process that is still used to this day to create a photographic print. It is done by putting a chemical on a page and putting items on it, after that you putt it in the sun, the chemical leaves a mark where the item is.
Here are examples of a modern day cyanotypes.
Here are my two Cyanotypes that I made. I was very happy with the outcome, for my first attempt I think they look good, I prefer the first image as the shapes are more defined. I enjoy this technique but it is fairly hard to complete because of the weather issues.
To improve the image I would try to make the outlines of the shapes more defined and the interior of the shapes thicker, this would make the images look more like the works of Atkins.
To improve the image I would try to make the outlines of the shapes more defined and the interior of the shapes thicker, this would make the images look more like the works of Atkins.
Here is a video showing how to print a cyanotype
WHY MAKE CYANOTYPES
The procces of creating cyanotypes is cheap and fairly straight forward, also the outcomes of each experiment will be unique and unusual and can not be achieved by using any other technique.