Karl Blossfeldt: Photogravures

Karl Blossfeldt (1865–1932) was a German photographer whose work focused on the beauty of nature, particularly plants, which he believed must be valued as “totally artistic and architectural structures.”

Blossfeldt spent a large portion of his life studying organic forms, selecting plant specimens like an entomologist who collects and catalogs butterflies. He captured his samples not with insect pins, but rather with a camera. Blossfeldt’s work was produced using homemade cameras that allowed for extra magnification. Because Blossfeldt’s first major exhibition took place in 1926 at the height of German modernism, he tends to be associated with the more realist wing of that movement—in fact, he far predated German photographic modernism as this work was initiated during the 1890s.

On loan from New Visions Gallery.