cyanotype to rayopraph: a window of history

The two posts below are about a scientific process. The first is a cyanotype by Anna Atkins a botinist in the 19th century. She used the cyanotype to record and observe nature. The second is a rayograph by a surrealist artist named Man Ray. The difference between the two falls more in the artistic and social realm then a scientific because the photographic process, though it has been enhanced and motified, remains fundamentally the same. The mid !9th century perception of the cyanotype was mainly, but not only, functional. The photosensitive paper and objects placed on the paper serverd an objective purpose, to record something. Where as the point of a rayograph to juxtapose objects creating visually stimulating compositions. It is easy to assume that the later would not be recieved as niether art nor science in Anna's decade. Whereas I have viewed Anna's work in many art history and photo history classes, placing her in the genre of artist's because although her work was not meant as art it is still aesthetically and visually appealing. So this shows a change over time in the artistic and societal realms slowly accpeting this science based art form into popular imagery.