SUNPRINTS aka CYANOTYPES are the oldest form of  direct photography . Objects are placed on sensitized paper and exposed to sunlight. The paper is washed in water. An image appears. This process can also be done using cloth. Sir John Herschel invented the process in 1842 as a “blueprint” of notes and diagrams. In 1843, Anna Adkins applied the process to seaweed creating the first photobook. Her images were called photograms.

Eight months later, in June 1844, the first fascicle of William Henry Fox Talbot’s The Pencil of Nature was released; that book was the “first photographically illustrated book to be commercially published” or “the first commercially published book illustrated with photographs”.

Tony Zaza has been making Sunprints for 25 years.