Karl Blossfeldt Essay

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Karl Blossfeldt was born in 1865 and was a German photographer, sculptor, teacher and artist that worked in Berlin, Germany. He was best known for his series of homemade cameras ranging from a zoom of up to 30 times the actual size of the subject. As his cameras were created in such an early period of time, his work amazed thousands and his photographs published as Unformen der Kunst was an instant bestseller, making Blossfeldt famous overnight. He photographed magnified images of plants, showing the architectural and artistic nature of the abstract shapes and structures of how plants grow; which both him and his father were inspired by. Blossfeldt was also a professor of Applied Art at Berlin Arts and Crafts School and used his photographs with his students, showing them too of the different forms of plants up close for their study. His work was seen as surrealism to critics as well as a major breakthrough in modern art.
In my opinion, Karl Blossfeldt’s work stand out to me as brilliant photography as he shows the different tones and irregular forms that plants grow into as well as clearly presenting their more complex texture from close up; which you would not normally see or be aware of if it was not enlarged. Although his work was produced only in monochrome (as he was obviously not able to produce colour photography due to such advanced technology not being invented yet) the photographs show patterns, outlines and the depth of different plants’ three dimensional

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