Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932)

Karl Blossfeldt's training began with the study of industrial arts and design at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Berlin. In 1890, along with five other students, he received a scholarship to work in Rome with one of the instructors, Mortiz Meurer. Meurer assigned him the job of casting models of botanical specimens, ultimately to be used by industrial craftsmen and manufacturers. In addition, the group photographed plants based on a method developed by Meurer. Blossfeldt acquired a keen interest and special talent in this task and continued to photograph plants for the remainder of his career.

He was eventually hired at the Kunstgewerbuschule as an assistant teacher and assistant director for modeling from plants. (During this time of the German arts and crafts movement, this was considered an important field.) He taught there for 31 years, and became Professor Emeritus in 1930. Blossfeldt used his plant photographs to demonstrate to students that the best engineering solutions for industrial design had already been anticipated in nature. His theories never really caught on.

In 1925 the photographs caught the attention of Karl Nierendorf, a banker and collector versed in Dada, Precisionism and Constructivism. Partly due to this interest in the photographs as "art," Blossfeldt began to exhibit his works in shows and in 1928 his first book was published. The book, Urformen der Kunst, (Art Forms in Nature) was edited by Nierendorf and published by Ernst Wasmuth. The book quickly went into successive editions and was followed by additional publications including Wundergarten in der Natur (Magic Garden of Nature) in 1932 and Wunder in der Natur (Magic in Nature) in 1942.

Karl Blossfeldt died December 3, 1932, in Berlin.

The photogravure printing process was popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s. At the time, it was the finest photomechanical means for reproducing a photograph in large editions. A descendent from the printmaking process of etching, photogravures utilize a copper plate. The result provides an almost velvety appearance to the image.

As a teacher of art and design in Berlin, Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932) aimed to demonstrate that "the best constructions for industrial design had already been anticipated in nature." To that end, he spent more that three decades photographing plants in Germany and Italy. His work, when first published, caused a sensation; never before had such extraordinary images been seen. Blossfeldt's photographs are the souvenirs of a visionary adventurer into the heart of the natural world. Taken in the first quarter of this century by a relatively unknown art school professor, these rarely seen black and white images are now recognized as vital contributions to the history of photography and they remain as surprising today as they are beautiful.

Since only simple forms lend themselves to graphic representation, I cannot make use of lush flowers such as a gardener raises and am dependent almost exclusively on wild plants. To this end, I now make bicycle trips and short excursions by train into the countryside around Berlin. If, for example, I find an interesting plant today near Potsdam, tomorrow near Friedrichshagen and the day after tomorrow at Teufelssee or in Dalldorf, then I am forced to make a country outing each day to the place in question for a period of three to four months in order to search for this one plant. I do not mind doing this, even if it means sacrificing my mornings and sometimes even my days off.

Top of page | Go back to previous page