Karl Blossfeldt
Karl Blossfeldt
Karl Blossfeldt was a German photographer best known for his severe close-up pictures of plants, seeds, twigs, leaves, and other flora. He was born in Schielo, Germany, on June 13, 1865, and died in Berlin on December 9, 1932.
Blossfeldt began his study in 1881 as an apprenticeship at the Art Ironworks and Forge in Mägdesprung, Germany, where he concentrated on modeling and iron casting. From that, he traveled to Berlin to enroll in the School of the Museum of Decorative Arts (Kunstgewerbemuseum). Blossfeldt obtained a scholarship in 1890 to further his education in Rome under the tutelage of creative artist and lecturer of ornament and pattern Moritz Meurer. Blossfeldt made molds of plant specimens in and around Rome and took pictures of them with various helpers. Through 1896, he continued to engage with Component that relates and made several trips outside Italy to Northwest Africa and Greece to acquire specimens. Blossfeldt started teaching architecture at the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of the Museum of Decorative Arts) in 1898, and in 1930 he was made professor emeritus. He started a plant photographing archive to teach his pupils about structure and patterns in nature.
Blossfeldt utilized homemade cameras with lenses that could enhance his subjects to double their size despite having no formal education in photography. Magnification produced extremely precise and clear images. Blossfeldt photographed the natural environment with the fidelity of a botanical for educational and scientific objectives and accidentally evolved into a creative man. His photograph was regarded as the predecessor to Neue Sachlichkeit, which favored finely focused documentarian pictures. Blossfeldt's first public exhibition of his art did take place in 1926 at Berlin's art nouveau Galerie Nierendorf when he was already in his 60s. In the book Urformen der Kunst, the artworks on display were reproduced (1928; Art Forms in Nature [2003]). It was a massive success and is now recognized as one of the most famous photo books of the 20th century. His other two picture books were Wundergarten der Natur (1932) and Wunder in der Natur (1942), which were finally published.
German artist Karl Blossfeldt is mainly remembered for his beautifully captured images of flora. Even though the public only became familiar with his work a few years before his demise, he was one of the rare painters to become recognized during his lifetime. Throughout his life, he never wavered in his devotion to art or his love for nature.
Early Years
In 1865, Blossfeldt was born in Germany. He was educated in the central German district of the Harz Mountains.
A lifelong passion for studying nature influenced Blossfeldt's artistic pursuits. He was once quoted as saying that "The plant never slips into plain arid constructivism; it molds and molds according to logic and appropriateness, and with its primal energy compels everything just to acquire the greatest creative form," by the Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography.
Blossfeldt first specialized in art and completed an apprenticeship at the Art Ironworks and Furnace in Magdesprung, Germany, acquiring the craft of artistic iron pouring. Based on a scholarship, he went to the Academy of Royal Arts Museum in Berlin, where he gathered plant forms as part of a class assignment to serve as models for a painting class. He would later use these botanical forms as topics for his photographs.
Blossfeldt first specialized in sculptures and completed an apprenticeship at the Art Ironworks and Foundry in Magdesprung, Germany, acquiring the craft of artistic iron casting.
On the foundation of scholarships, he went to the Academy of Royal Arts Museum in Berlin, where he started gathering plant forms as part of a class project to serve as models for a drawing course.
After 12 years, Blossfeldt's first marriage to Maria Plank in 1898 ended in divorce. In 1912, he wed again, this time to opera singer Helene Eminem.
The Institute of Royal Arts and Museum in Berlin, where Blossfeldt was educated, featured art and sculptural classes. His tenure there lasted until 1930.
Blossfeldt's love of the natural environment is evident in his pictures, which feature different plant parts such as flowers, buds, pods, stalks, and seed capsules. Blossfeldt didn't have any professional education in photographing and made his own camera that significantly magnified his subjects.
When Blossfeldt's first compilation of photographic photographs, "Urformen der Kunst," was released, he was 63 years old. The launch of the book, which comprised 120 of his actual pictures, came after his work was exhibited at Berlin's Gallery Nierendorf. In 1932, "Wundergarten der Natur," his second work, was released.
His first book, which was based on a range of sources, including the Photographers Now website, was really well by journalists and art enthusiasts and became tremendously famous due to the originality of his close-up photographs.
After Years
Blossfeldt did not expect his artistic ability as a photographer, based on the Encyclopedia of 20th Century Photography, but he thought that the dissemination of his work would motivate people to examine art more carefully. He was cited as having said, "My flower pictures should aid in re-establishing a connection with nature. They need to rekindle a sense of wonder for the natural world, bring attention to its teeming range of shapes, and urge the viewer to study his own local plant life."
Blossfeldt's love of the natural world is obvious in his pictures, which include various plant parts such as flowers, buds, pods, stalks, and seed capsules.
Blossfeldt did not foresee his artistic ability as a photographer, but he anticipated that the dissemination of his work would stimulate people to examine art more thoroughly, according to the Handbook of 20th Century Photography.
On December 9, 1932, Blossfeldt died unexpectedly from scrotal cancer that had already migrated to his spine and rendered him disabled.
Legacy
Blossfeldt worked and resided in Berlin from the late nineteenth century until his death. His first book, Unformed der Kunst, introduced his artwork to the attention of the public in 1929. (Art Forms in Nature). Terms related der Kunst, issued in 1929 when Blossfeldt was 63 years old and a lecturer of applied art at the Vereinigte Staatsschulen für freie und angewandte Kunst, became an immediate international hit and catapulted Blossfeldt to fame. His contemporaneous researchers were fascinated by the complex structure and patterns he uncovered in nature. Blossfeldt's novel on photography was speedily hailed as a classic, and Walter Benjamin praised it for its objective truth and care for detail, saying that Blossfeldt "has played his part in that great inspection of the inventory of perception, which will have an unpredicted effect on our creation of the world." He rated his accomplishments alongside those of the great photographers August Sander and Eugène Atget and connected him to Moholy-Nagy and the progenitors of New Objectivity. He was also welcomed by the Existentialists, and Georges Battelle exhibited his artwork in the journal Documents in 1929.
The credibility of his connection with Competence Level was questioned by the disclosure of his working collages in 2001. His processes were demonstrated to be unique from those of other painters in the movement.
Urformen der Kunst was selected as one of the key photographic books of the 20th century in "The Book of 101 Books" in 2001.
Artwork
Many of Blossfeldt's photos were acquired with a camera that he had modified to capture plant coverings at different unheard-of magnifications. With the assistance of gallerist Karl Nierendorf, who assembled an art exhibition of the images alongside African sculptures at his gallery in 1926 and later released the first edition of Blossdeldt's monograph Urformen der Kunst (Art forms in nature) in 1928, his photos gained attention among the artistic avant-garde. Following the book's overwhelming success, Blossfeldt released a second anthology of his flora illustrations in 1932 under Wundergarten der Natur (The magic garden of nature). He earned recognition from the adherents of New Vision cinematography for his photos' clarity and correctness, with a seeming lack of manipulation, and for their ability to be displayed as metaphors for fundamental forms in art and design. Important exhibits, such as Fotografie der Gegenwart and Film und Foto, both in 1929, showed his work prominently.
List Of Works
Anemone, Pulsatilla, 1920
Cirsium Canum, 1929
Impatiens Glandulifera Balsamine, printed
Centaurea odorata, 1932
Briza maxima, 1932
Trollius ledebourü, 1932
Uniola latifolia. Schwingelgras, 1942
Cajophora lateritia (Loasacae), 1932
Seseli gummiferum, 1932