“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.”
Rated 9.8 – based on 224 votes
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Learn to make prints using plants – an environmentally safe process in this book dedicated to anthotypes. Includes a comprehensive reference section on plants.
- Format: Paperback, 100 pages, full color
- 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
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 in her early twenties moved to London 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 for alternative photographic processes and represents almost 400 artists. Malin actively manages the expansion of the site as editor. She researches alternative photographic processes, makes her own prints and runs workshops. Malin has also worked professionally with big media names like Time magazine and CNBC Europe. Malin is the co-author of Blueprint to cyanotypes and From pinhole to print, the editor of the alternative photography art book Alternative Photography: Art and Artists, Edition I representing 115 artists working in alternative photographic processes, and the author of Blueprint to cyanotypes – Exploring a historical alternative photographic process, a beginners book on cyanotypes, Anthotypes – Explore the darkroom in your garden and make photographs using plants, which is the only book dedicated to the anthotype process, Anthotype Emulsions, Volume 1 which contains the anthotype research of 100 artists from World Anthotype Day, and creator of two notebooks Anthotype notes – Document your anthotype process, and Cyanotype notes – Document your cyanotype process. She has a strong interest in all alternative processes. Malin now lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden and has two sons, Maximillian and Ruben.
In the press
PhotoEd, November 2022:
Alan Bulley, 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
Hi Rae,
Thank you so much for your kind words. I’m glad you found the books useful and hope to see you for World Anthotype Day!
Absolutely love this book, not only does it explain exactly how to make anthotypes it also shares other artist’s experiences/experiments with emulsions – which is so helpful when you are starting out. I also bought the book about Anthotype Emulsions which is more of this documentation I’d different plants as pigments. Invaluable. The background and history sections are excellent resources for all students and teachers and helps to contextualise each of us as being part of a learning process stretching across the centuries and we can each have a unique place in this evolving process. Just beautiful. Thank you so much for being so generous and making all of this available and accessible. I am enjoying this plant photography process and all it represents.
Thank you Bernd,
That’s a great idea. I hope they do!
Yes, and different languages would be great too! Thank you for sharing!
Hi, I like this book very much and want to say thank you to Malin Fabbri and all artists in the book.
I knew Anthotypes for about ten years and did make some, too.
I also provided pictures for the Wikipedia.
Here I saw many pictures which are very good and I want to propose, to publich some in the Wikipedia. This must be done in principle by the artists themselves.
My own pictures show results, it may be enough or not.
Because it is international I want also to propose to create Anthotype pages in other languages by native speakers.
This is important because only a few language entries exist.
Thank you for your kind words! Glad to help! 🙂
This book is FANTASTIC! I am teaching a class in experimental processes and really needed the test results of other brave souls before me.
Jesseca, Thank you so much for your kind words, I’m happy to have inspired! 🙂 And thank you so much for the nice panel and discussion!
Malin – thank you for being such a critical cornerstone in the ongoing & ever strengthening revival of the anthotype process! Your book has inspired many, & led to “Making Pictures From Plants: Contemporary Anthotypes,” an exhibition co-curated by Mary Kocol and me. You contributed enormously to our associated Zoom panel, “Anthotypes Today: New Metaphors, New Meaning.” One painter friend (unfamiliar with you, your book (https://www.alternativephotography.com/anthotypes/), or AlternativePhotography.com) wrote me and called you “a force of nature”! You certainly have opened up a whole new world of discovery and “green” photography for me and many others. Thank you!!
Thank you for your kind words, and I’m glad the book inspired you, that’s exactly the purpose of it! 🙂
Thank Malin Fabbri for writing your excellent Anthotype book that’s inspired so many! This is THE go-to book for learning about & making anthotypes. It includes a long list of best plants for making anthotypes, plant handling safety, artist samples, history of the anthotype, and a section about Photoshop to create your own digital transparencies. My garden has never looked more intriguing, now that I see it for its anthotype potential!
Thank you, and I am glad you enjoyed the book! /Malin
The book ‘Anthotypes – Explore the darkroom in your garden and make photographs using plants’ has been important to my personal research since 2015, it has been a reference in my master’s work and also the “suggested reading” to my students. I am very grateful to you and your research, Malin Fabbri. <3
Thank you so much Kari! Enjoy anthotyping!
Thanks for a lovely book. A complete description of the technique. At least I don’t need further knowledge.
I am now looking forward to the sun.
I am working with a big exhibition and am trying to use friendly, natural and recycled materials. This book is just what I needed.
Kari
Thank YOU and enjoy making Anthotypes!
I love this book! It is detailed, complete and gives an inspiring view on working with nature.
I bought it just yesterday, and I finished it already. It’s great for a beginner to get into alternative ways of photography. As a photographer I’m always searching for creative ways of spicing things up a bit, and I think I have found my favorite one yet.
Thank you Malin, for writing this this amazing book.
As artist, fashion designer and artisan dyer, I am looking every day for new inspirations. This book is what I needed to introduce myself into the photographic aprouch of my work with plant dyes. I read it straight after I bought it and summer is going to be so much fun for me..
Thanks for this book wich is very well wroten and I just recomand every one to try at least once this magical technique.
This is a fabulous book ! I was so excited to receive it. And when I read it, it was an amazing feeling to know that there are other artists out there obsessed with plants and weird experiments and alchemy ! A very niche art form, and just great to know that other people are working with Nature – its the way forward for everything. – Many thanks, sarahgarrod.co.uk
@Andy Schmitt: I’m glad you enjoyed the book!
wow… after all this time of telling others about Malins book… I finally bought it for myself…and it’s as good as I’ve been telling everybody else…
My thesis was about alternative photography. Though I couldn’t find enough information about anthotypes, it was the green process that intrigued everyone in my presentation. One year later I bought this book. Nature and alternative processes. A book that combines almost every possible natural pigment with sunprinting! A book that provides information for all the steps one needs to create an anthotype. You don’t have to be a pro, you just have to love what you’re creating. Remarkable illustration, numerous experiments, creative artists!
A concise, charming book, that investigates the beautiful process of natures magic. Create imagery using the purest ingredients extracted from nature. Pure simplicity, step by step instructions. Suitable for beginners, “which i am” . Excellent value for money. Thankyou to all who took part in creating this wonderful book. It really is a breath of fresh air. Thankyou Malin Fabbri & Artists.
Finally a book for photographic artists wishing to work with materials from nature. Most beautiful photographic prints can be made with juice extracted from the plants of your garden! The old printing method, invented by Sir John Herschel, never became a success commercially, nor was it very practical in terms of usability or repeatability, but for a modern artist looking for new ways to expand his/her means of expression, it is a wonderful way to make some unique work. Malin’s book is an in-depth study and step by step instructions to this astounding process… and a great source of information and inspiration!
As the world turns to greener and greener ideas, Malin Fabbri’s book is brimming with possibilities for the photographer! In a quick, engaging read, she has brought back to light a mostly-forgotten and incredibly simple process the requires no chemistry, just the fruits, veggies, spices, flowers in your kitchen and garden and almost no environmental impact. Through examples by numerous artists and her own experimentation, Fabbri shares experience with what has worked well, marginally or not at all -yet?. With it she gives a jump start to anyone anyone who would like to dive into this fascinating process and fuel for experimentation with the thousands of yet-unexplored plants. It’s a beautiful book for the darkroom photographer, art teacher, or nature-lover.
This book is so full of great information, all well illustrated. The techniques are simple enough for beginners, but the book would also be appropriate for experienced photographers who would like to know more about this beautiful and “green” process.
Another inspiring book by Malin that fuses image and text and design in a new way with a Swedish flavor. There seems to be acceptance lately of low-definition, fugitive images, perhaps because high-definition, archival images are now so common. Of course the environmental friendliness of the anthotype process is deeply appealing.
I just ordered this! Can’t wait to get it. I love this process and hope to learn some more interesting tips. Thanks!
Learn in minutes how to create simple, beautiful photographs using the liquid essence of plants, fruits, and flowers. This charming jewel of a book overflows with visual examples, including an informative photo catalog offering scores of viable plant options for your printing pleasure. From cinnamon to blueberries, hackberry and poppy, you’ll find this easy to follow, easy on the eyes, volume both delightful and delicious! I heartily applaud Malin Fabbri and the many contributors for an outstanding offering to the world of alternative photographic processes. Ten stars and three cheers!
Imagine making photographs out of plant pigments! Here is a book by Malin Fabbi that is full of beautiful examples and research by an international community of artists. Malin does a great job of bringing a beginner into the colorful word of anthotypes and saving her or him a lot of trial and error. The book is also an amazing collection of work by artists invested in one of the earliest and most overlooked photographic processes.