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It was last spring when I found "Leaves of Plants" from "Pencil of Nature," said to be the world's first photo book. It was growing at the base of a roadside tree near my house, where I had been searching for more than two years. I immediately took one of the branches and leaves home and began a photojournalistic drawing.
It is a simple blue and white cyanotype. There is a sense of anticipation and surprise in the process of light fixing the shape of an object on paper, a basic technique that has remained unchanged since Anna Atkins printed a specimen of seaweed 180 years ago.
The veins in the white silhouette of the leaves are as beautiful as geometric patterns.
This Prussian blue, unique to cyanotypes, is described as azure in Japanese. It is also called "Edo Blue" because it was used as a dye for paintings in the ukiyoe works of Hokusai and Hiroshige.
Before the invention of gelatin silver printing, cyanotype was one of the most popular photographic techniques in the 19th century. Compared to chicken-egg paper, cyanotype prints have higher contrast, and because there is no coating layer such as egg white or gelatin, the texture of the paper is preserved and the print is matte.
The artist again printed on cyanotype the Parisian cityscape and the scenery of Nissephore Niepce's studio, which he photographed with a large format camera.
It was three months later that he visited Laycock in southwest England.
The descendants of "Leaves of Plants" left by Henry Fox Talbot were growing along the Avon River flowing through the village. The "plant's leaves" produce small white flowers.
Talbot seemed to have selected relatively young branches and leaves for his prints.
Norifumi Inagaki
※Anna Atkins: English botanist; published a collection of seaweed specimens using cyanotypes in 1842.
※"Plant leaf": A perennial herb of the genus "Shaku" in the family Seriaceae. Japanese name "Peony" Shaku. English name "Wild Chervil" It is widely distributed from eastern Eurasia to eastern Europe. It grows in clusters in moist places in forests and valleys in mountainous areas. The leaves are bright green and have a fragrance characteristic of the chervil family. The stems are erect and grow to about 200 cm in length.
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