Women in Colour: Anna Atkins, Color Photography and Those Struck by Light
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
8-3-2025 10:20 PM
Description
Ellen Carey, Photographer and Artist, Hartford, Conn., U.S.A.
Women in Colour: Anna Atkins, Color Photography and Those Struck by Light
My research on the origins and history of color photography noticed an absence, prompting a question: “Where would color photography and women practitioners be without the work of Anna Atkins?”
The British Victorian, Anna Atkins (1799-1871), was the first woman photographer (albeit camera-less) and the first in color – two “firsts”. Her nature and botanical studies used the Prussian blue cyanotype for organic silhouettes in variant shades using the sun for exposure. These “sun pictures” were made with the 19th-century cyanotype method taught to her by the English polymath, Sir John Herschel (1792-1871). Atkins partnered her blue cyanotypes with the photogram (1834) discovered by William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), her contemporary, both equals as photography pioneers. First called a photogenic drawing, a sun picture, then a photogram to describe a paper negative he created as photo-object, it is the photogram name for this process-as-object that continues today.
The origin of “photography” as a word, shows duality in its Greek roots phōs for light and graphis for drawing; the process of photography starts with Talbot’s dual process of negative-to-positive, found only in the contact print; although not so with Atkins, both made unique photo-objects.
Gender codes of blue / feminine versus brown / masculine (boldface and italics are mine) underscore these divisions in content, context, and concept; Atkins’ photo-book, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843), also pre-dates Talbot’s photo-book, The Pencil of Nature (1844-1846). This presentation explores color photography’s gendered connections.
Ellen Carey (b. NY, NY - USA), a Pictures Generation contemporary and member of Buffalo’s avant-garde with Cindy Sherman and Robert Longo, upends the medium's collective histories in lens-based art, photography, and technology with her abstract, minimal “picture” signs. Ellen Carey is an educator, independent scholar, guest curator, photographer, and lens-based artist. The Royal Photographic Society (RPS) named Carey one of the top 100 women photographers worldwide, 1 of 14 Americans under their Hundred Heroines platform, now its own organization (www.hundredheorines.org). Her unique and experimental photographs seen in over 70 solo plus hundreds of group exhibits, reproduced in books, brochures and other printed matter. Of note, "Light Struck" at Fox Talbot Museum finds a parallel solo "Struck by Light" at New Britain Museum of American Art (www.nbmaa.org), former saw 220,000 visitor, latter 30,000; both extended a year (May 2023 - May 2024). Photography Degree Zero (1996-2024) in Polaroid 20 X 24 and Struck by Light (1988-2024) in Photogram names her dual practices while Pictus & Writ sees published essays on Man Ray, Sol LeWitt, Anna Atkins plus her own work.
Relational Format
Conference proceeding
Recommended Citation
Carey, Ellen, "Women in Colour: Anna Atkins, Color Photography and Those Struck by Light" (2025). Women of Photography: A 24-Hour Conference-a-thon Celebrating International Women’s Day 2025. 64.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/womenofphotography/2025/schedule/64
Women in Colour: Anna Atkins, Color Photography and Those Struck by Light
Ellen Carey, Photographer and Artist, Hartford, Conn., U.S.A.
Women in Colour: Anna Atkins, Color Photography and Those Struck by Light
My research on the origins and history of color photography noticed an absence, prompting a question: “Where would color photography and women practitioners be without the work of Anna Atkins?”
The British Victorian, Anna Atkins (1799-1871), was the first woman photographer (albeit camera-less) and the first in color – two “firsts”. Her nature and botanical studies used the Prussian blue cyanotype for organic silhouettes in variant shades using the sun for exposure. These “sun pictures” were made with the 19th-century cyanotype method taught to her by the English polymath, Sir John Herschel (1792-1871). Atkins partnered her blue cyanotypes with the photogram (1834) discovered by William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), her contemporary, both equals as photography pioneers. First called a photogenic drawing, a sun picture, then a photogram to describe a paper negative he created as photo-object, it is the photogram name for this process-as-object that continues today.
The origin of “photography” as a word, shows duality in its Greek roots phōs for light and graphis for drawing; the process of photography starts with Talbot’s dual process of negative-to-positive, found only in the contact print; although not so with Atkins, both made unique photo-objects.
Gender codes of blue / feminine versus brown / masculine (boldface and italics are mine) underscore these divisions in content, context, and concept; Atkins’ photo-book, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843), also pre-dates Talbot’s photo-book, The Pencil of Nature (1844-1846). This presentation explores color photography’s gendered connections.
Ellen Carey (b. NY, NY - USA), a Pictures Generation contemporary and member of Buffalo’s avant-garde with Cindy Sherman and Robert Longo, upends the medium's collective histories in lens-based art, photography, and technology with her abstract, minimal “picture” signs. Ellen Carey is an educator, independent scholar, guest curator, photographer, and lens-based artist. The Royal Photographic Society (RPS) named Carey one of the top 100 women photographers worldwide, 1 of 14 Americans under their Hundred Heroines platform, now its own organization (www.hundredheorines.org). Her unique and experimental photographs seen in over 70 solo plus hundreds of group exhibits, reproduced in books, brochures and other printed matter. Of note, "Light Struck" at Fox Talbot Museum finds a parallel solo "Struck by Light" at New Britain Museum of American Art (www.nbmaa.org), former saw 220,000 visitor, latter 30,000; both extended a year (May 2023 - May 2024). Photography Degree Zero (1996-2024) in Polaroid 20 X 24 and Struck by Light (1988-2024) in Photogram names her dual practices while Pictus & Writ sees published essays on Man Ray, Sol LeWitt, Anna Atkins plus her own work.
Comments
All times listed are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Use timeanddate.com to convert to your local time zone.