Plantstudie 1928

Karl Blossfeldt made this silver gelatin print, Plantstudie, at an unknown date, and it now resides in the Rijksmuseum. Looking at the image, I can see the fine lines and subtle tones of the gelatin silver process used to create it, and I imagine Blossfeldt in his darkroom, coaxing these shades from light and shadow. The plant seems to become an architectural study or an engineering diagram! I am completely taken by the plant's stem and the orderly way each smaller shoot extends in a paired formation. It is reminiscent of how Eva Hesse used to create repetition through seriality. Blossfeldt’s eye for form transforms the mundane into something monumental, almost abstract. Photography is a process of abstraction, but so is painting. We are all in conversation, seeing and responding to the world through our materials. The plant here seems to capture a moment of growth, a testament to the generative power of nature and art.