Anna atkins cyanotype images

In 1854 Anna Atkins created a series of images preserving nature using the cyanotype photographic process; 127 years later these rare Prussian blue images arrived at the V&A. The photographs represent Festucaovina (fescue grasses; PH.380-1981), Taraxacum officinale (dandelion; PH.382-1981), Papaver orientale (poppy; PH381-1981) and a title page from British and Foreign Flowering Plants and Ferns (PH.379-1981).

Visiting the V&A Photography Centre opening exhibition charting photographic history in 2018, it was striking to see Atkins’s blue and white Fescue Grassesdisrupting the flow of familiar sepia treasures, attracting attention and curiosity in equal measure.

I recently returned to visit the V&A Archive viewing materials relating to Atkins’s contribution to the 1984 touring exhibition The Golden Age of British Photography where once again her images added a splash of early monochromatic colour to an exhibition charting the history of British photogr