Photograms are camera-less images made by placing objects directly onto light-sensitive material and exposing to light.

Invented by British photographer Frederick Scott Archer in 1851, wet-plate collodion is one of the oldest darkroom processes, used widely during the American Civil War.

A year after Archer introduced the wet-plate process, gentleman scientist Sir John Hershel discovered a simpler iron-based process that created permanent photographic images in a range of rich blues: the cyanotype.

Anna Atkins, a pioneering female photographer, began experimenting with Hershel's formula soon after to craft gorgeous, otherworldly photograms with algae, feathers, ferns, and water plants, publishing the first photography book in 1843.

At Blue Bracken Designs we bring a modern eye to these historically significant forms and humbly follow in Atkins' footsteps by making organic forms our primary subject.