ANNA ATKINS

ANNA ATKINS

( 1799 - 1871 )

We can consider her the first woman photographer. She studied botanology in a period when access to science and studies for women was almost impossible. In 1841 she came into contact with Talbot who was a friend of her father’s. immediately she became aware of the possibilities that photography could offer to scientific research. She worked with the procedure of cyanotype a technique which was just discovered by Herschel and seemed much easier to her. Because of the stability of cyanotype many of her pictures still exist to this very day. In October 1843 she published the first book containing photographs which was named “British Algae – Cyanotype impressions” which was completed in a period of 10 years and came before Talbot’s publication. “The pencil of nature”.