how the first photobook was made in the mid-1800s

British Algae (1843-53) by Anna Atkins is considered the primary guide to be illustrated utilizing photographic pictures. The English botanist (1799-1871) produced her assortment utilizing the cyanotype approach, which she grew to become conscious of via her father’s friendship with its inventor, John Herschel. Later this month, Taschen is publishing a facsimile of British Algae alongside Atkins’s different guide, Cyanotypes of British and International Ferns (1853). Beneath is an extract from an accompanying essay by Peter Walther, detailing Atkins’s improvement of the guide.

Anna Atkins herself had collected and dried many of the vegetation included in British Algae. At harvest time, the algae have been instantly rinsed in water, then taken dwelling the place she used dissecting forceps and camelhair brushes to take away extraneous matter, earlier than lastly urgent and drying them. Because the backs of lots of Atkins’ pictures are pale blue in color, we will assume that she didn’t at all times sensitize the paper with a brush or sponge. As a substitute, she immersed it in chemical options. To create a cyanotype, Atkins positioned the vegetation on to the suitably ready paper set into a replica body, which she then coated with a glass plate in order to ensure the closest potential contact with the help floor. The end result was a lavishly detailed define picture. Areas solely partly permeable to gentle appeared brighter within the picture than these absolutely uncovered, whereas denser algae have been much less distinctly seen.

Alongside the specimen, a label exhibiting the identify of the plant was positioned on the paper. The label indicating the plant’s identify was first dipped in oil to make it clear, in order that when uncovered to the sunshine solely the script remained.

Relying on the climate and the depth of the solar the copy frames have been left […] for between 5 and quarter-hour. After a time, the paper would flip to a yellowish inexperienced color which, after the sheets have been rinsed in water, turned to a roughly intense blue.

Anna Atkins gave her cyanotypes serial numbers. Even when she examined the plant quite a few occasions, there have been some noticeable variations between specimens belonging to the identical collection. Earlier than every publicity, the algae have been rearranged on the ready paper. Generally they appeared in reverse within the picture, however at different occasions they appeared to have moved solely a brief distance. The depth of the blue different from one species to a different. October 1843 noticed the publication of round 15 copies of the primary quantity of British Algae, which she devoted to her father. In a foreword, Atkins mirrored on the the reason why she had produced the guide. “The problem of creating correct drawings, so minute as lots of the Algae and Confervae, has induced me to avail myself of Sir John Herschel’s lovely means of the Cyanotype, to acquire impressions of the vegetation themselves, which I’ve a lot pleasure in providing to my botanical pals.”

The primary editions of the album have been despatched to the Royal Society, Herschel, [Henry Fox] Talbot, the minerology and photograph pioneer Robert Hunt and the guide collector Thomas Phillips. The British Museum, the Linnean Society of London and the botanical gardens in London and Edinburgh have been equally honoured. […] Within the subsequent years main as much as the spring of 1849, a complete of ten volumes, every containing twelve prints, [were sewn] collectively by hand. The recipients have been liable for collating and binding the sections collectively.

• Anna Atkins: Cyanotypes, Peter Walther, Taschen, 660pp, £100 (hb)