Stunning Victorian cyanotypes of sea algae by Anna Atkins – the first female photographer and the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographic images.
Betcha didn’t know that the first book illustrated with photographs was published by a woman, huh?
The image above, from botanist Anna Atkins’ extensive collection of algae and seaweed, was created by a process called cyanotype, which is a photographic print process that gave us the word “blueprint”.
Brady Haran gave us a great look at Atkins’ images in a video for his superb new series “Objectivity”:
Head over to Brain Pickings and check out a gallery of Atkins’ amazing cyanotype images. You won’t be sorry.
BONUS: Want more incredible vintage art/science crossovers? Tour through the illustrations of the great Ernst Haeckel, and Albertus Seba’s almost psychedelic Cabinet of Natural Curiosities.