Karl Blossfeldt
June 13, 1865 – December 9, 1932 - 67 y/o
The plant photographer
"Nature educates us into beauty and inwardness and is a source of the most noble pleasure"
"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"
"My botanical documents should contribute to restoring the link with nature. They should reawaken a sense of nature, point to its teeming richness of form, and prompt the viewer to observe for himself the surrounding plant world"
Education
Why did he get into photography?
Blossfeldt mainly used a homemade camera that could zoom-in a subject thirty times it's original size, this is how he created the most extraordinary images of his time.
In 1930, Karl Blossfeldt became Professor Emeritus, after he was hired as an assistant teacher and assistant director at Kunstgewerbeschule for 31 years.