Schizonema Grevillii 1851 - 1855

Anna Atkins made this cyanotype of Schizonema Grevillii, a type of algae, using the cyanotype process, sometime in the mid-19th century. Atkins was part of a network of scientists and photographers in Britain, at a time when photography was new to Britain and science was changing rapidly. Her father was a scientist, and she used her access to knowledge and equipment to create an illustrated book of British algae. She directly recorded and classified nature using the latest technology in the service of scientific knowledge. Looking at this work now, one might consider the politics of scientific imagery, how it might reflect and construct power relations between humans and nature. To understand this image better, we might want to research the history of photography, or 19th-century scientific illustration, or the ways in which gender shaped access to scientific knowledge. The meaning of art is contingent on such historical context.