Work

Crafting and collecting cyanotypes: Anna Atkins's Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions

Year: 2023

Type: article

Abstract: This essay reads Anna Atkins's Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843–1853) as an example of Victorian imitative art by reading it through the lens of Victorian domestic handicraft. It does so in order to resituate Atkins's work within the history of scientific visualization and to contribute to the increasing complexity scholars of visual culture and of the scientific image have added to prevailing accounts of the rise of the “objective” scientific image in the nineteenth‐century. Building on the work of historians of photography, art, science, and literature, it argues that her cyanotypes point toward an alternative history of scientific image as a form of craft and collection that resonates with recent calls in the study of the scientific image and scientific practices to move “beyond representation.”

Source: Literature Compass

DOI: 10.1111/lic3.12708

Author: Sophia Franchi

Institution: Johns Hopkins University

Language: English

Topic: Photographic and Visual Arts

Subfield: Museology

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $2,630

Funders: Johns Hopkins University, Royal Society