Maker/Artist
Atkins, Anna
English photographer and botanist, 1799-1871
Atkins was the first person to publish a photographically printed and illustrated book, her privately published "British Algae" (1843-1853). In the early 1850s she began to collaborate with Anne Dixon on creative cyanotype photograms. Her artistic photography, shaped by the requirements of scientific illustration rather than the prevailing conventions of Victorian art, was bold and direct and anticipated the later photograms of Man Ray and other artists.