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Karl Blossfeldt
Karl
Blossfeldt
(1865-1932)
was
a
German
photographer,
sculptor,
and
teacher
best
known
for
his
strikingly
magnified
portraits
of
plants,
seeds,
leaves,
and
other
flora.
Blossfeldt
began
his
artistic
career
in
1881
in
sculpture
and
iron
casting
at
the
Art
Ironworks
Foundry
in
Mägdesprung,
Germany.
In
1890,
he
became
an
apprentice
to
Moritz
Meurer,
a
decorative
artist
and
professor
of
ornament
and
design.
Under
Meurer,
Blossfeldt
began
creating
and
photographing
botanical
specimens
around
Rome,
Greece,
and
North
Africa.
In
1898,
he
took
a
teaching
position
at
the
School
of
the
Museum
of
Decorative
Arts
in
Berlin,
where
he
developed
a
series... Read More
of
home-made
cameras
to
photograph
plant
surfaces
in
hyper
magnification
up
to
30x
their
natural
size.
For
most
of
his
life
his
work
was
used
as
an
archive
of
teaching
tools
with
the
intention
of
inspiring
young
architects,
sculptors,
and
textile
artists.
However,
upon
the
1929
publication
of
his
book
Urformen
der
Kunst,
Blossfeldt
rapidly
rose
to
prominence
in
the
art
industry.
He
was
praised
as
a
pioneer
of
the
New
Objectivity
movement
and
compared
to
other
photography
greats
like
Eugène
Atget
and
August
Sander.
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