BLOSS FELDT KARL
1 BEGINNINGS
Nature as Art
MASTER OF THE CAMERA by robert beresford
KARL
BLOSS FELDT Nature as Art
Nature as Art
MASTER OF THE CAMERA : by robert beresford
Copyright Š 2012 by Robert Beresford Version 1.3 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission from the publisher. Critics are welcome, of course, to quote brief passages by way of criticism and review. Pontifex Publishers PO Box 1985 New York, NY 10170 ISBN 0-45786-563-4
for the beautiful woman who welcomes me home each day.
TABLE of CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 2 BEGINNINGS : chapter 1
4
TEACHINGS : chapter 2
16
RESEARCH : chapter 3
28
DEVELOPMENTS : chapter 4
34
RESOLUTIONS : chapter 5
46
PLATES 54 INDEX OF PLATES 60
BEGINNINGS CHAPTER 1
Karl Blossfeldt (1865–1932) is
unknowingly; for it was not until
considered a pioneer of the New
1928, shortly before the end of his
Objectivity in the history of
life, that his Urformen der Kunst
photography. His oeuvre consists
appeared. Published with primarily
of some 6,000 photographs of
didactic rather than artistic inten-
plants and plant segments that
tions by the Wasmuth Verlag in
have survived as negatives and
Berlin, the book made him famous
in contemporary publications. In
overnight. Blossfeldt surely could
addition, another 500 authorized
not have believed his eyes as he
contemporary prints were found
read the reviews.
in the archive of the Hochschule der Kunste in Berlin in 1984. These so-called “vintage prints” were believed to have been lost and belonged — along with threedimensional models — to Blossfeldt’s instructional materials.
Begun in 1896, his collection was the result of three decades of diligent botanical documentation and dabbling in aesthetics; suddenly the foremost critics and art philosophers of his day were celebrating the discovery of
As a sculptor and university
a theretofore unknown universe.
teacher, he first taught “modeling
Praised as pioneering feats of the
based on living plants” at the old
technical medium, almost all the
Kunstgewerbemuseum in the Gro-
photographs were made with the
pius Building, then at the Berliner
same camera; and because they
Vereinigten Staatsschulen, the
were always made for the same
present Hochschule der Kunste.
purpose—to serve as pedagogical
He achieved photo-historical fame
records on film—they were stylisti-
somewhat innocently and almost
cally consistent.
BEGINNINGS 6
He has done his part in that great examination of the perceptive inventory, which will have an unforeseeable effect on our conception of the world. He has proven how right Moholy-Nagy, the pioneer of the new photography, was when he said: “The limits of photography are unforeseeable. Everything is still so new here that even the search leads to creative results. Technology is the natural precursor for this. The illiterate of the future will not be he who cannot write but he who cannot take a photograph.” Whether we speed up a plant’s growth or show its form in a forty-fold enlargement—in both cases a geyser of new images erupts at points of our existence where we would least expect it.
The illiterate of the future will not be he who cannot write but he who cannot take a photograph. Blossfeldt surely could not have believed his eyes as he read the reviews. The projection of vegetal life into technical forms follows the ritual of spell.
7 BEGINNINGS
His oeuvre consists of some 6,000 photographs of plants and plant segments that have survived as negatives in contemporary publications.
BEGINNINGS 8
UNKNOWN UNIVERSE The projection of vegetal life into
he believes to recognize that the
With this idealistic premise, the
technical forms follows the ritual
new forces were already at work
“new way of seeing” braces itself
of a magical spell. Objects, alien-
in the old vegetal forms archaic
against the experience of subjec-
ated and increasingly threatening
ornamental elements. The feelings
tive impotence in the face of the
in their rigid power since Goethe’s
that accompany these glimpses
technical and as is increasingly the
day, are fixated—and held by the
vary, depending upon what
case in our century, ideological
eye of the camera—until their
predominates—the hubris of the
powers that are so overwhelming.
rigidity seems to dissolve into
spellbinding gaze.
familiar forms.
It is feared that the things them-
The decisive factor is to be found
selves cannot be changed; relief,
That is one version; the other
elsewhere however. Everything is
and above all consolation, must
interpretation is that the viewer,
dependent upon the viewer, not
therefore be sought in a change of
haunted by technology, capitulates
the object viewed. Just how threat-
perception:
and changes sides. In the mimicry
ening things appear depends upon
of a humble glance backwards,
the capacity and suitability.
Our eye need only become a bit sharper, our ear a bit more receptive; we need to take in the taste of a piece of fruit more fully; we should be able to tolerate more odors and become more conscious and less forgetful when touching and being touched — in order to draw consolation from our immediate experiences which would be more convincing, more paramount, and truer than all the suffering that could ever torment us.
9 BEGINNINGS
The random pruning, but rather an aesthetic decision based on principle. Just as the bestial aspect of vegetal functions remains secondary to him, the chaotic subterranean life of tubers is no subject for his photos.
11 BEGINNINGS
This wrote Rilke to Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis Hohenlohe after a year of world war (September 6, 1915). Tragedy and calamity are to be offset by an exertion of the senses, a sensibility devoid of personal interest. The personal aspect must recede so that the essence of things may unfold within the observer.
ROOTED IN STRUCTURE It is indeed true that Blossfeldt demonstrated little interest in root systems; and in accordance with the classical premises of his aesthetics and their origins in Meurer’s teaching materials, they could hardly have interested him. The amputation that Kubicki criticizes is therefore not an act.
BEGINNINGS 12
It is practically impossible to stylize it. The illiterate of the future will not be he who cannot write but he who cannot take a photograph. Blossfeldt surely could not have believed his eyes as he read the reviews. The projection of vegetal life into technical forms follows the ritual of spell. His oeuvre consists of some 6,000 photographs of plants and plant segments that have survive
13 BEGINNINGS
Every healthy manifestation of art requires a germinative impulse: only from nature’s eternally flowing fountain of youth, from which the peoples of all ages have drawn, can art once again receive new energy and inspiration for healthy development. Blossfeldt’s structural plants must not have seemed adequately rooted in this soil.
INDEX
GOETHE 4 HOCHSCHULE DER KUNSTE
16
KUNSTGEWERBEMUSEUM
28
MOHOLY-NAGY 34 NEW OBJECTIVITY
46
RILKE 46 GOETHE 4 HOCHSCHULE DER KUNSTE
16
KUNSTGEWERBEMUSEUM
28
MOHOLY-NAGY 34 NEW OBJECTIVITY
46
RILKE 46 GOETHE 4 NEW OBJECTIVITY
46
RILKE 46 GOETHE 4
BEGINNINGS 20
KARL
BLOSSFELDT Karl Blossfeldt (1865–1932) is considered a pioneer of the New Objectivity in the history of photography. His oeuvre consists of some 6,000 photographs of plants and plant segments that have survived as negatives and in contemporary publications. In addition, another 500 authorized contemporary prints were found in the archive of the Hochschule der Kunste in Berlin in 1984. These so-called “vintage prints” were believed to have been lost and belonged — along with three-dimensional models — to Blossfeldt’s instructional materials.