Extraction: In Conversation with Anna Atkins

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By Marie Smith
Art Digital Exhibitions Gardens Women
Extraction: In conversation with Anna Atkins is my visual response, as part of my residency at the Horniman Museum and Gardens.

The Horniman owns four volumes of her book of British Algae that were made as cyanotype plates in 1848 (bound as books in the 1880s). It is worth noting that Anna Atkins was married to John Pelly Atkins, the son of Alderman John Atkins – a West Indian merchant and slave owner, and owner of several plantations in Jamaica. The Atkins family received compensation (some of the claims made by Atkins family were both successful and unsuccessful) when slavery was abolished in 1807.

The compensation paid to the Atkins family alongside other former slave traders was paid at the expense of the UK taxpayer, a national debt that was only paid off in 2015. As someone who is of Jamaican heritage, this aspect of Atkins history provided me with an understanding of how she was able to finance her artistic practice and a point of conversation for me to respond to.

During my visit to the archive, I recorded my thoughts as I looked through her book of cyanotypes.

As someone who is of Jamaican heritage, this information prompted a myriad of personal and theoretical questions and thoughts that explored her methodology, such as the aesthetics of the cyanotypes, as well as her personal explorations as a female artist in 19th century. The word ‘extraction’ kept appearing and repeating itself in my mind. I took this as a prompt to reflect on Atkins’ legacy as well as reflecting on the history of photography, which has and continues to have a detrimental cost to the environment.

In response, the series ‘In Conversation with Anna Atkins’, was made as an outcome of my residency at the Horniman Museum and Gardens from April to September 2023. My bleached cyanotypes have been bound as 30 cyanotype plates, in response to Atkins and the popular cyanotype process that she is known for.

The cyanotypes feature photos from the Horniman Nature Trail and Gardens, alongside plants and leaves found during my walks. I have bleached the cyanotypes (with sodium carbonate), and some of the cyanotypes feature a transcript of my words from my visit to Horniman’s archive. Bleaching the cyanotypes provides a way for me to process my feelings and interrupt Atkins work in a way that allows me to have agency.

Altering the aesthetics of the cyanotypes, also provides a mode of commentary whilst acknowledging the origins of the cyanotype process as well as providing a vehicle for my nuanced approach to her legacy. The book is my way of working through my feelings and the research about Atkins and her practice.

I also took photos during my walk and made negatives of them by printing the photos onto acetate which I made into cyanotypes. I utilised a plant-based developer from elderflower that I collected from the Nature Trail to develop the analogue black and white photos.

You can read more about my research during my residency on my website.

Listen to Marie’s impressions of the Anna Atkins cyanotypes, while you view her work below:

A white leaf on mottled blue and white cyanotype paper

(C) Marie Smith

Text over two white leaves on blue cyanotype paper. Text reads, "Water, water these creatures come from water and have existed within the context of water before they became a subject. Inconsistent blues have different tones and tonality to the blues operate the blues or dark blues has shade balloons all I can see beside the time that they resemble something familiar to me, but they feel like I could recognise it and it can become something else but it's not of this time. Folds of history. Blue. Cyan. Washed translucent. As I flick through the page and I'm seeing these obstructions of light. I can hear the sound movements are slow intentional and wonder if there was a tension 1 wonder if there was a struggle trying to get this fragile life onto the page to create the cyanotype."

(C) Marie Smith

Mottled creams and blues of a cyanotype abstract print

(C) Marie Smith

Mottled cream and blue cyanotype with a white leaf impression. Text is overlaid, reading, "Trying to shape in existing life form onto a page to create a photograph. Destroying nature or drawings of nature. I'm struck by the feeling of wanting to know how and why how meticulous the process was why algae and not something more attainable to record. Every interaction with this page is making me think who will be looking at this book next who's hand is going to touch the paper, folding, and reflecting on this book I wonder how the science of the cyanotypes will be in 100 years time. Would they have deteriorated over time, would they still be the same? The subject is from nature and things from nature because of climate change are now not permanent. I'm not sure what would've happened to"

(C) Marie Smith

Mottled creams and blues of a cyanotype abstract print

(C) Marie Smith

Dark blue cyanotype with a white leaf impression. Text is overlaid, reading, "it after it had not been utilised for the purposes of being made into a photograph. I'm aware that maybe things are finite maybe photography gives a false impression. Deterioration happens, overtime. The cyanotypes give the impression that this is not permanent it's a fine that bat we can preserve them anyway which means the wean he kept for longer and enjoyed by somebody else's legacy for interpretation. Engagement. Thoughts. Feeling and interactions can be transferred to another time to a place to another person. This expensive object is an object of photographic history. Extraction comes to mind as I turn the pages whose hand has touched these pages. Have many Black women have touched these pages "

(C) Marie Smith

CYanotype print of a white leaf on a cream background

(C) Marie Smith

Dark blue cyanotype with a white leaf impression. Text is overlaid, reading, "how many Black women have engaged with Anna Atkins book. My contemporary hands understand the process, a shared technical understanding. We would not have been able to meet with the same level of equity if I were living in 1848, I have position of existing and engaging with this book in 2023. Time created a space for me to look at this book. I can see more of the history coming through I can feel patience and nature. I can sense that they have history, there is consistency, I am thinking about the paper and at the same time it feels hard, it feel textured, Too thin, not soft enough. Each page has different types of blue, Deep light. Very light almost turquoise. Deterioration, the edges of the page have"

(C) Marie Smith

Mottled white and cream abstract cyanotype

(C) Marie Smith

Mottled cream and blue cyanotype with a white leaf impression. Text is overlaid, reading, "gone a black. There is an expectation as I flick through the pages, I am struck by the element of time. However, extraction keeps coming to mind, extraction keeps coming to the fourth front, sitting on the the tip of my tongue. Extraction for the sake of it or for the purpose of monetisation. Atkins also made a book about ferns in Jamaica. That process and position she held in Jamaica where she recorded and documented plant species from my motherland inform my gaze. As I look at the cyanotypes, we are in conversation."

(C) Marie Smith

Photograph of the Horniman nature trail imprinted on blue cyanotype paper

(C) Marie Smith

White panel on a dark blue cyanotype background

(C) Marie Smith

White impression of a photo on a mottled cream and blue cyanotype

(C) Marie Smith

Dark blue cyanotype with a white leaf

(C) Marie Smith

Light blue impression of a photo from the Horniman Nature Trail on a mottled cream and blue cyanotype, showing a tree trunk

(C) Marie Smith

Please note, misspellings or fragmented statements in Marie Smith’s artworks are intentional to reflect how her thoughts were being processed at the time as a neurodiverse person.