Anna Atkins
Photographer and botanist (1799 - 1871) United Kingdom 1843.

Anna Atkins, 41, delicately places algal samples on iron-sensitized paper and presses them with glass. Exposed to light for 15 minutes and washed with water, the uncovered portions of the paper turn blue. Each image bears the name of the sample, previously recorded on transparent paper that serves as a negative for printing. The result will be a new cyanotype for her collection, a work in which art and science once again merge to create the blue legacy of a visionary. Photographs of British Algae (1843-1853), an edition of approximately 400 images, is now recognized as the first book of photographs in history. Anna's aesthetic talent, combined with the precision of her meticulous work, is what makes her cyanotypes a work of art and, at the same time, a scientific document of great historical value. However, it took more than a century for his work to receive the recognition it deserved.