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Karl Blossfeldt (13 June 1865 9 December 1932) was a German photographer and sculptor. He is best known for his close-up photographs of plants and living things, published in 1929 as Urformen der Kunst. He was inspired, as was his father, by nature and the ways in which plants grow.

Biography

Early life and career

Karl Blossfeldt was born on 13 June 1865 in Schielo, near the Harz Mountains (present-day Germany). He began his career as a sculptor before extending his artistic horizons to other pursuits. In 1881, Blossfeldt began an apprenticeship, when he was 16 years old, training as an iron caster at the Art Ironworks and Foundry in Mägdesprung Germany. He traveled, along with other assistants, around Europe and North Africa photographing botanical specimens for Moritz Meurer to use as reference photos for his artwork. It was while studying under Moritz Meurer that Blossfeldt began his initial experimentation with the field of photography. Blossfeldt continued working for Moritz Meurer until 1896.

Photography career

thumb|upright=1|right| Urformen der Kunst, p. 10Blossfeldt’s photography career began when he was photographing botanical specimens for Moritz Meurer. Blossfeldt later continued to develop his skill set, and his collection of photographs, while he was working as a professor. The photographs he took for Moritz Meurer and during his teaching years were used as reference photographs for his personal work and for his teaching purposes.

It wasn't until Blossfeldt was in his 60s that his photographs began to receive recognition for their artistic value, as opposed to their functionality as references. This segued into Blossfedlt's rise in fame that eventually lead to his second publication Wundergarten der Natur. Blossfeldt's focused and magnified photos were in stark contrast to the purposefully blurry images most photographers were producing at the time. Blossfeldt also maintained a detailed log of both the common and Latin names of his plant subjects. His pictures attracted wide attention through the support of gallerist Karl Nierendorf, who sponsored a show of Blossfeldt's pictures paired with African sculptures at his gallery in 1926. With this said, Karl Blossfeldt continues to be regarded as a pioneer of close-up photography who received great praise from many notable figures in the art world. Blossfeldt continues to receive praise, even after his death, with his 2001 Urformen der Kunst included in "The Book of 101 Books" as one of the seminal photographic books of the twentieth century.

Exhibition features

  • Fotografie der Gegenwart, 1929
  • Film und Foto, 1929