Anthotypes – Explore the Darkroom in Your Garden and Make Photographs Using Plants

by Malin Fabbri

Edition 1 is the first book published on anthotypes is an established introductory guide to the process. It explains how to make prints using plants through an environmentally safe method and is dedicated entirely to anthotypes. The book includes a comprehensive reference section on plant sources.

• Format: Paperback, 100 pages, full colour
• Printed by: Amazon
• Size on Amazon: 20.3×25.4 cm or 8×10 inches
• ISBN on Amazon: 978-1466261006
• Publisher: AlternativePhotography.com (January 2012)
• View table of contents
• Press release

Edition 2 expands on all sections in greater depth and introduces the underlying chemical and technical principles to provide a complete guide to anthotypes. The second edition is scheduled for release no later than mid-February. The ebook can be preordered here (___LINK___ ), For a paper edition, sign up for anthotype newsletter, to receive notification when it becomes available.

About the anthotype book

It is possible to print photographs using nothing but juice extracted from the petals of flowers, the peel from fruits and pigments from plants. This book will show you how it is done and expand your creative horizons with plenty of examples from artists working with anthotypes today. Anthotypes will simply make you look at plants in a whole new light. And, if that is not enough, anthotype is a totally environmentally friendly photographic process.

Inside

From Malin Fabbri

Anthotypes will make you look at plants in a whole new light. It will show you how to make photographs from the juice of flowers, fruits and plants, using a totally environmentally friendly photographic process.

Anthotype is a very delicate photographic process and an environmentally friendly way of making prints using nothing other than the photosensitive material of plants found in the garden, the flower market or in the wild. All you need to add is water, sunshine, inspiration and patience – a lot of patience!

The process is very basic and simple. Utilizing nature’s own coloring pigments from flower petals, berries, plants, vegetables or even spices, images are produced using the action of light. The natural pigment is used to create a photographic image.

What could be better? Your impact on the natural environment is virtually non-existent, and you can carry out your art with a clear conscience. Anthotyping is the ultimate environmentally friendly photo process.

About the author

Malin Fabbri grew up in Sweden and moved to London in her early twenties to study. She earned an M.A. in Design at Central St. Martin’s School of Design, but publishing her thesis felt more like a beginning than an end. Malin decided to combine her academic and practical experience and started AlternativePhotography.com in 2000. The website still maintains its origins as a source of information and research on alternative photographic processes and now represents almost 400 artists. Malin actively manages the expansion of the site as editor. She researches alternative photographic processes, makes prints, and runs workshops.
Malin has also worked professionally with major media names such as Time magazine and CNBC Europe. She is the co-author of From Pinhole to Print and the editor of the alternative photography art book Alternative Photography: Art and Artists, Edition 1, which features 115 artists working in alternative photographic processes. Alternative Photography: Art and Artists, Edition 2 was launched for the 25th anniversary of AlternativePhotography.com in 2025. To show the creative width of alternative processes, the book Pure Inspiration was also written in two editions.

Apart from writing Anthotypes – Explore the Darkroom in Your Garden and Make Photographs Using Plants, which is the first book dedicated to the anthotype process, and the expanded version Anthotypes – The Complete Guide to Making Photographs with Plants and Sunlight. She has also authored Blueprint to Cyanotypes – Exploring a Historical Alternative Photographic Process. Malin launched World Anthotype Day, a global event where artists collectively research anthotype emulsions, in 2022 and from there compiled Anthotype Emulsions, Volumes 1-3 – the collective research from photographers on World Anthotype Day 2022–2024, each featuring contributions from hundreds of artists.

Malin has a strong passion for alternative processes. She now lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden, with her two sons, Maximillian and Ruben.

In the press

PhotoEd, November 2022:

Said about the book “Anthotypes – Explore the darkroom in your garden and make photographs using plants”

“Anthotypes show us just how much early photography is a kind of natural magic. Malin Fabbri’s book is a real gift – a much-needed manual on this beautiful and almost-forgotten process.”

“The anthotype is a quaint and charming nexus from the very beginnings of photography and the fertile imaginations of artist – scientists such as Herschel, Hunt, and Somerville. It is perfect in it’s simplicity, requiring only the petals of new flowers, the essences of fruits and vegetables, a little alcohol, and sunshine… all of the perfect ingredients required for a romantic vacation. Malin Fabbri has collected an abundance of anthotype information and constructed a modest and lovely book that expresses not only the beauty of the process but also her genuine affection for the organic clarity of the materials.”

Artists included in the anthotype book

• Nancy Breslin
• Hans de Bruijn
• Beverly Conway
• Dan Estabrook
• Malin Fabbri
• Carol Golemboski
• Silvino Gonzàlez
• Jake Groenhof
• Katherine M. Hill
• Rosemary Horn
• Katja Krajnc
• Nicole Lawrence
• Sarah Lycksten
• Scott McMahon
• Ko Oosterwijk
• Fabio Pasquarella
• Jalo Porkkala
• Martin Helmut Reis
• Francis Schanberger
• Nicky Thompson MA
• Sarah Van Keuren
• Marydorsey Wanless