Cyanotypes by Anna Atkins
You may have noticed today’s Google Doodle being someone rarely recognized outside of photography history classes: Anna Atkins, one of the first (if not the first) female photographers, and the first person to create a compilation book of photographs. Today is the 216th anniversary of her birth.
Atkins used a method of photography called cyanotype, which captures a silhouette on a piece of paper exposed to sunlight. The silhouette can be a traditional photography negative, a set of notes or blueprints, or it can be used directly, as Atkins did, by placing an object on the treated paper and exposing it.
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