Anna Atkins
Anna Atkins is said to have been the first woman to create a photograph. Initially she was trained as an English Botanist and discovered photography as a means to document botanical specimens for a scientific reference book, entitled ‘British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions’. This book
subsequently became considered to be the first book to demonstrate light-senstive materials in a publication. As well as this, Aktin’s decided to use the Cyanotype process further by printing her hand-written text and illustrations through the means of this photographic process rather than using traditional letter pressing. In 1843 Atkins printed and published Part I of ‘British Algae’, which in turn established photography as an accurate medium for scientific illustration. Anna Atkins was born in Tunbridge, Kent, England in 1799. Her mother died while Anna Atkins was an infant, which made her particularly close to her father, John George Children, who was a highly respected scientist and a Fellow and Secretary of the Royal Society. After marrying John Pelly Atkins in 1825 she pursued her interests in botany, for example by collecting dried plants which were probably used as photograms later on. John George Children and ohn Pelly Atkins were friends of Willian Fox Talbot and in 1841 inspired by the advice from William Henry Fox Talbot she decided to take up photography where she learned directly from Talbot about two of his inventions related to photography: the “photogenic drawing” technique (in which an object is placed on light-sensitized paper which is exposed to the sun to produce an image) and calotypes. By 1843 she had mastered Sir John Heschel’s cyanotype process, and it is said that she might have been personally mentored by him as the Atkins and Herschel families resided only 30 miles apart in Kent, England, and herbotanist father, John George Children, and Herschel were friends. From 1843 to 1853 she worked constantly to document her large collection of seaweed, which were then released as a 12-part series. In 1853 Anna Atkins teamed up with her childhood friend, Anne Dixon, who began to collaborate in creating photograms of ferns, flowers, feathers and lace. These photograms became something of an artistic expression, although this was not her original goal, many of the photograms of plants can be celebrated as a significant scientific document but also for their thoughtful composition. |
This photograph by Anna Atkins shows a focus on the areas that are clearer for example the white outlines in contrast to the blue background. The highlighted parts are directly focused on the bold white outlines of the plants standing out against the dark blue background. Looking closely it doesn't represent any form of shadow within the photograph. The light seems natural and direct to the representation of the printed plants. The lines particularly consist of dominant lines that stand out the most but also some of the lines shown are curved as well as being straight to create the patterns. Looking at this image the repetition is shown twice in one of the images, this creates some form of pattern. However, the repetition doesn't continue on the right hand side. I've noticed more lines represented as the plants rather than a series of geometric shapes within the image. The objects in the image appear two dimensional due to the boldness of the lines printed on flatly. There appears to be not so much negative space around or as dull instead it's quite bright and eye catching. I've noticed a range of tones from the different sections of the image leading to different coloured blues leading to the contrast of the highlights of the whites. I feel this photograph explores not enough colour, only blues and white which doesn't make the work of Anna Atkins as interesting.
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Man Ray
Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky, August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976). Man Ray was an American modernist artist who spent most of his time, career in Paris, France. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal. He produced major works in a variety of media but considered himself a painter above all. He was best known for his photography, and he was a renowned fashion and portrait photographer. Ray is also noted for his work with photograms, which he called "rayographs" in reference to himself. Man Ray began his work by painting and slowly began more famous through is photograms.
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