Vintage Botanical Photogravure-Karl Blossfeldt-Title Page

Description

This first edition photogravure plate by Karl Blossfeldt (Germany 1865-1932) is the title page from "Wunder In Der Natur". Strikingly … more This first edition photogravure plate by Karl Blossfeldt (Germany 1865-1932) is the title page from "Wunder In Der Natur". Strikingly modern and inherently beautiful, Karl Blossfeldt's extreme close-up photographs of plants, flowers, stems and seed heads are as appealing (perhaps even more so) today as when they were first introduced to the public in the first and second quarters of the 20th century. These images are from Blossfeldt's collection of photographs in "Wunder In Der Natur" published in 1942 (the photos were actually taken around the turn of the century, but were printed later). Most offerings by other sellers of photographs from this series feature plates with images printed on both sides usually charging $75-$160 per sheet (usually $95 - $200 each printed on one side only). All of our listings from "Wunder In Der Natur" feature these outstanding close-up photogravures that are printed on one side only.

Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932) was a German instructor of sculpture who used his remarkable photographs of plant studies to educate his students about design elements in nature. Self-taught in photography, he devoted himself to the study of nature, photographing nothing but flowers, buds and seed capsules for thirty-five years. What made Blossfeldt's work unique was his extreme technical mastery of photography. He specialized in macrophotography to enlarge his plant specimens and even designed a camera for this purpose. As a result, everyday garden flowers are presented in such a way that their rhythmic forms are emphasized to the extreme and the plants take on new and exotic characteristics. Blossfeldt wanted his work to act as a teaching aid and inspiration for architects, sculptors and artists. It was his firm belief that only through the close study of the intrinsic beauty present in natural forms, that contemporary art would find its true direction.

Blossfeldt's photographs were made with a homemade camera that could magnify the subject up to thirty times its actual size. By doing so he revealed extraordinary details within the natural structure of the plants. In the process he created some of the most innovative photographic work of his time. The simple yet expressive forms captured on film affirmed his boundless artistic and intellectual ability.

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