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Karl Blossfeldt

Karl Blossfeldt (1865–1932) was a German photographer and teacher whose close-up plant photographs appeared in 1928 as “Urformen der Kunst”. Seen this close, ferns, buds and stems reveal sculptural forms; the plants here include maidenhair, male and tree ferns, a thistle, yarrow, saxifrage and allium.

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About Karl Blossfeldt

Blossfeldt taught for more than thirty years at the school of Berlin’s Museum of Decorative Arts, and his plant photographs began as teaching material: models from nature for students of ornament and modelling. He built his own cameras, enlarging plants up to thirty times, and photographed each specimen in black and white against a plain ground.

Ferns form the largest group here: “Adiantum pedatum”, the male fern “Aspidium filix-mas”, the tree fern “Alsophila aspera” and young fronds still curled tight. The flower studies go in close on yarrow, allium and single petals, and “Cirsium canum” and “Saxifraga media” keep the Latin names of Blossfeldt’s own captions. His photographs return to the city where he taught: each is made to order in Berlin as a giclée print with pigment inks, on matte 210 g/m² fine art paper or 400 g/m² cotton canvas, in sizes A4 to A0.