karl BlossfeldtKarl Blossfeldt began his career as a result of a class project at his school of art and design in Berlin. He had a “keen interest and special talent” for taking photographs of plants. He was self taught in photography and also did sculpture. He was a part of the German version of Art Nouveau, which was basically the mimicking of patterns found in nature within sculptures and structures. He created a book on Art in Nature in 1928, and has published two other books. He died in 1932 in Berlin, Germany.
Karl Blossfeldt saw the opportunity for engineers to find inspiration from structures already present in nature. He used the photogravure technique of printing which allowed his images to have a “velvety appearance” that seemed to have paired well with his choice of subject. He “…devoted himself to the study of nature, photographing nothing but flowers, buds and seed capsules for thirty-five years. He once said, ‘The plant never lapses into mere arid functionalism; it fashions and shapes according to logic and suitability, and with its primeval force compels everything to attain the highest artistic form’ (Soul Catcher).
What fascinates me about his work is that not only was he self-taught, but he also made his own camera specifically for the subject matter of his artwork. His plant images are very abstract and combine moments of geometric shapes as well as organic shapes. His works are very simple but so beautiful in the textures and capturing of the images themselves. They are also captured in great detail, which makes them all the more intriguing to explore.
His series work of connecting his plant images reminds me a lot of the color project. Even though the colors are not present in his contrasted black and white images, his series seems to present different aspects of the same object, or very similar aspects of different objects. It is allowing for comparison between each photo as was talked about in the book. His work also allows me to look to the next project with camouflage. His images are macro images of plants, and the way he takes them makes them look like structures or things other than plants. This causes the viewer to have to take a second glance and really study what exactly it is that they are looking at which is what we will be doing with our project.
http://www.karlblossfeldtphotos.com/Display_list_live.asp?ID=14&Des=1
http://www.soulcatcherstudio.com/exhibitions/blossfeldt/
http://www.soulcatcherstudio.com/artists/blossfeldt.html
Karl Blossfeldt saw the opportunity for engineers to find inspiration from structures already present in nature. He used the photogravure technique of printing which allowed his images to have a “velvety appearance” that seemed to have paired well with his choice of subject. He “…devoted himself to the study of nature, photographing nothing but flowers, buds and seed capsules for thirty-five years. He once said, ‘The plant never lapses into mere arid functionalism; it fashions and shapes according to logic and suitability, and with its primeval force compels everything to attain the highest artistic form’ (Soul Catcher).
What fascinates me about his work is that not only was he self-taught, but he also made his own camera specifically for the subject matter of his artwork. His plant images are very abstract and combine moments of geometric shapes as well as organic shapes. His works are very simple but so beautiful in the textures and capturing of the images themselves. They are also captured in great detail, which makes them all the more intriguing to explore.
His series work of connecting his plant images reminds me a lot of the color project. Even though the colors are not present in his contrasted black and white images, his series seems to present different aspects of the same object, or very similar aspects of different objects. It is allowing for comparison between each photo as was talked about in the book. His work also allows me to look to the next project with camouflage. His images are macro images of plants, and the way he takes them makes them look like structures or things other than plants. This causes the viewer to have to take a second glance and really study what exactly it is that they are looking at which is what we will be doing with our project.
http://www.karlblossfeldtphotos.com/Display_list_live.asp?ID=14&Des=1
http://www.soulcatcherstudio.com/exhibitions/blossfeldt/
http://www.soulcatcherstudio.com/artists/blossfeldt.html