Description

Details:

Number Of Pages: 72 (with 50 color illustrations)
Dimensions: 14 × 20.5 × 1.2 cm
Languages: English
Publisher: Circa
Year Published: 2021–2022
Cover: Hardcover

 

Short Description: Anna Atkins: Blue Prints showcases the pioneering cyanotype images by Victorian botanist‑photographer Anna Atkins – credited with producing the first book ever illustrated with photographs. Richly designed by Lowlypaper and published by Hirmer / Klinkhardt & Biermann, this visually driven volume presents 50 of Atkins’s exquisitely cyan‑blue photograms-of algae, ferns, feathers-paired with essays that contextualize her scientific artistry. The combination of design elegance and historical reverence makes it both a visual delight and a scholarly tribute.

Artist Bio: Anna Atkins (1799–1871) was an English botanist and botanical illustrator celebrated as the first person and first woman to publish a book illustrated solely with photographic images. In 1843, she self‑published Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, using the newly invented cyanotype process to capture seaweeds with scientific precision and artistic grace.

Her cyanotype series, printed directly from specimens, fused botany and visual art into a transformative form, later earning recognition for its influence on both scientific documentation and photographic aesthetics.