Jessica Hays

Matrilineal knowledge and plant medicines have been used for reproductive care and abortions for centuries. The First Photobook Was Blue explores reproductive rights through photographic history, herbal and traditional medicines, and the lives of both historic and contemporary child-free women. Plants used as abortifacients and non-hormonal birth control are printed in cyanotype, paying homage to Anna Atkins, the 19^th century artist and scientist who created the first photobook. This work draws parallels between the dismissal of her work at the time and how the professionalization of medicine erased women’s contributions to the field. Atkins herself never had children, in an age where a married woman of her class and status was certainly expected to. Connecting Atkins and modern decisions to remain childfree, I am interested in the role of non-motherhood women take on in our communities. Scientific data about the use of certain plants for reproductive healthcare is interwoven with reflections on my own status as an artist and child-free woman and Anna Atkins’ life and contributions to the fields of photography and botany. In the face of alarming rollbacks on human rights for women in the United States, epitomized by the overturning of Roe V. Wade and a recent rulings affording embryos rights beyond those of the pregnant person, this project reveals the long history of abortion and reproductive health care predating western medicine.

Integrating cyanotype photographs, research-based text, and personal reflections, The First Photobook was Blue examines the idea of leaving a legacy, roles of motherhood and non-motherhood, and reproductive justice in a time when the right to choose one’s own path in life is increasingly under attack. Rooted in the assumption that the earth and humanity are in harmony, this work calls on a long history of reproductive care and the matrilineal heritage of healing to assert that women and femme-identifying people have always had, and will always have, the right to access means of self-determination in their decision whether or not to bear children.

All photographs are made in the historic cyanotype process. This process was also used by Anna Atkins to create the first photobookin 1843.

Additional text components and essay samples available upon request.