My Favorite Photographers: Karl Blossfeldt

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Cirsium oleraceum photo courtesy of www.artnet.de

Karl Blossfeldt

...was a German teacher and photographer known for his close-up photos of plants against stark backgrounds.  He was an art professor, and his photos were made to illustrate his theme of the importance of natural forms.  He was virtually unknown as a photographer until his first book, Urformen der Kunst (Art Forms in Nature), was published in 1928, after 30 years of teaching.  The success of that book led him to gather another 120 of his photos for a second book, Wundergarten der Natur (Magic Garden of Nature) published in 1932.  Judging from the price, it must be a collector's item!


The great thing about these photos, is that these are boring, ordinary plants, some are just tiny weeds, and he found such dramatic forms in them.  After looking through one of his books from the library, I tried my own version of this style.  As I was arranging some green onions from my yard, they took on an interesting shape:

Karl Blossfeldt Timeline

b. Schielo, 13 June 1865
d. Berlin, 9 December 1932

He was born in Schielo in what was then Prussia, now Germany.

From 1882 to 1884, he studied sculpture and modeling at the foundry in Mägdesprung.

From 1884 to 1890, he studied music and drawing at the Royal Institute of Arts and Crafts in Berlin.  He was an assistant model maker to Professor Moritz Meurer.

Between 1890 and 1896, he travelled with Professor Meurer in Greece, Italy and North Africa.  During these travels, Blossfeldt made a series of plant photographs for use in teaching form and design.

In 1898, Karl Blossfeldt began teaching sculpture based on plant forms at the Kunstgewerbliche Lehranstalt.  He would teach there until 1930.

In 1912, he married his second wife, opera singer Helene Wegener.

In 1926, Karl Blossfeldt's photographs were exhibited at the Gallery Nierendorf in Berlin.

In 1928 a collection of his photographs was published, titled Urformen der Kunst (published in English as Art Forms in Nature, but more precisely translated as Prototypes of Art).

See a huge selection of Karl Blossfeldt prints at FineRarePrints.com