KARL BLOSSFELDT Nature as Art
Masters of the Camera by Robert Beresford
Masters of the Camera
KARL BLOSSFELDT
Nature as Art
by Robert Beresford
Folio Press
by Robert Beresford K ARL BLOSSFELDT
Masters of the Camera
Nature as Art
table of contents
Sometimes there is an insect-like trait present. Patterns and shapes naturally occur.
resolutions
beginnings
plates
teachings
13 1
19 7
Sometimes there is an insect-like trait present.
1 beginnings Patterns and shapes naturally occur.
c hapter
Masters of the Camera
and in contemporary publications. In
As a sculptor and university teacher, he first
K ARL BLOSSFELDT
pioneer of the New Objectivity in the
addition, another 500 authorized
taught “modeling based on living plants”
Nature as Art
history of photography. His oeuvre
contemporary prints were found in the
at the old Kunstgewerbemuseum in the
consists of some 6,000 photographs of
archive of the Hochschule der Kunste in
Gropius Building, then at the Berliner
plants and plant segments that have
Berlin in 1984. These so-called “vintage
Vereinigten Staatsschulen, the present
survived as negatives
prints” were believed to have been lost
Hochschule der Kunste.
and belonged—along with three-dimensional models—to Blossfeldt’s instructional materials.
by Robert Beresford
Karl Blossfeldt (1865–1932) is considered a
2
by Robert Beresford
“ The limits of photography are
new here that even the search leads
unforeseeable. Everything is still so
natural precursor for this.
to creative results. Technology is the
K ARL BLOSSFELDT
He achieved photo-historical fame
Begun in 1896, his collection was the result
Praised as pioneering feats of the
Nature as Art
somewhat innocently and almost
of three decades of diligent botanical
technical medium, almost all the
unknowingly; for it was not until 1928,
documentation and dabbling in
photographs were made with the same
shortly before the end of his life, that his
aesthetics; suddenly the foremost critics
camera; and because they were always
Urformen der Kunst appeared. Published
and art philosophers of his day were
made for the same purpose—to serve as
with primarily didactic rather than
celebrating the discovery of a theretofore
pedagogical records on film—they were
artistic intentions by the Wasmuth
unknown universe.
stylistically consistent. Among the first
Masters of the Camera
3
Verlag in Berlin, the book made him
to lavish praise upon Blossfeldt was
famous overnight. Blossfeldt surely
Walter Benjamin:
could not have believed his eyes as he read the reviews.
The illiterate of the future will
not be he who cannot write
Moholy-Nagy
but he who cannot take a
photograph. ”
“ 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. 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 form spawns photographic qualities.
Patterns and shapes naturally occur.
There is a human-like quality present.
Sometimes there is an insect-like trait present.
Masters of the Camera
Sometimes there is an insect-like trait present.
K ARL BLOSSFELDT
Nature as Art
Patterns and shapes naturally occur.
6
by Robert Beresford
2 teachings Sometimes there is an insectlike trait present.
c ha pt e r
Masters of the Camera
That is one version; the other inter-
The decisive factor is to be found elsewhere
K ARL BLOSSFELDT
forms follows the ritual of a magical
pretation is that the viewer, haunted by
however. Everything is dependent upon the
Nature as Art
spell. Objects, alienated and increasingly
technology, capitulates and changes
viewer, not the object viewed. Just how
threatening in their rigid power since
sides. In the mimicry of a humble glance
threatening things appear depends upon
Goethe’s day, are fixated—and held by
backwards, he believes to recognize that
the capacity and suitability of his optics.
the eye of the camera—until their rigidity
the new forces were already at work in
seems to dissolve into familiar forms.
the old vegetal forms archaic ornamental elements. The feelings that accompany these glimpses vary, depending upon what predominates— the hubris of the spellbinding gaze or the humility of transformation.
by Robert Beresford
The projection of vegetal life into technical
8
“
“ 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 when touching and being touched — in order to draw consolation from our immediate experiences. unforeseeable. Everything is still
“ The limits of photography are
so new here that even the
search leads to creative results.
Technology is the natural
precursor for this.
Masters of the Camera
be he who cannot write but he
The illiterate of the future will not
who cannot take a photograph.”
Moholy-Nagy
This wrote Rilke to Princess Marie von Thurn
way of seeing” braces itself against the
und Taxis Hohenlohe after a year of
experience of subjective impotence in the
world war (September 6, 1915). Tragedy
face of the technical and as is increas-
and calamity are to be offset by an
ingly the case in our century, ideological
exertion of the senses, a sensibility devoid
powers that are so overwhelming. It is
of personal interest. The personal aspect
feared that the things themselves cannot
must recede so that the essence of things
be changed; relief, and above all
may unfold within the observer.
consolation, must therefore be sought in a change of perception:
K ARL BLOSSFELDT
Nature as Art
by Robert Beresford
With this idealistic premise, the “new
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The winding curves mimic more than just shapes in nature.
Patterns and shapes naturally occur.
The form spawns photographic qualities.
Sometimes there is an insect-like trait present.
3
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. � Moholy-Nagy
Masters of the Camera K ARL BLOSSFELDT Nature as Art
The limits of photography are unforeseeable. Everything is still so new here
Beresford
Folio Press
KARL BLOSSFELDT
Nature as Art Masters of the Camera by Robert Beresford
Folio Press