Karl Blossfeldt
Overview
Karl Blossfeldt (1865 –1932) is best-known for his close-up photographs of plants published in 1929 as Urformen der Kunst. A photographer, sculptor, teacher and artist based in Berlin, Blossfeldt made a homemade camera that could magnifying the subject up to thirty times its size, revealing the natural structure of a plant – the repetitive patterns found in natural textures and forms. The resulting images were technically brilliant, artistically inspired and strikingly modernist. In 2001, Urformen der Kunst was included in the The Book of 101 Books, as one of the seminal photographic books of the twentieth century.
Featured Exhibitions

Cobaea scandens, 1928
7.75 x 10.25 in.
Photogravure

Asclepias speciosa, 1928
7.75 x 10.25 in.
Photogravure

Aristolochia clematitis, 1928
7.25 x 10.25 in.
Photogravure

Eranthis cilicica, 1928
7.5 x 10.25 in.
Photogravure

Physostegia virginiana, 1928
7.5 x 10.25 in.
Photogravure

Symphytum officinale, 1928
7.5 x 10.25 in.
Photogravurein.

Dipsacus laciniatus, 1928
7.5 x 10.25 in.
Photogravure

Impatiens glandulifera, 1928
7.25 x 10.25 in.
Photogravure

Polystichum munitum, 1928
7.5 x 10.25 in.
Photogravure

Eryngium giganteum, 1928
7.5 x 10.25 in.
Photogravure

Tellima grandiflora, 1928
7.75 x 10.25 in.
Photogravure

Abutilon, 1928
7.75 x 10.25 in.
Photogravure

Equisetum hyemale, 1928
7.75 x 10.25 in.
Photogravure

Papaver, 1928
7.5 x 10.25 in.
Photogravure

Centaurea ruthenica (Compositae), 1928
7.75 x 10.25 in.
Photogravure

Forsythia suspensa, 1928
7.5 x 10.25 in.
Photogravure

Trollius europaeus, 1928
7.25 x 10.25 in.
Photogravure

Primula japonica, 1928
7.75 x 10.25 in.
Photogravure

Achillea umbellate, 1928
7.25 x 10.25 in.
Photogravure

Cirsium canum, Phlomis umbrosa, and Salvia, 1928
7.25 x 10.25 in.
Photogravure