Art Forms in Nature 18 1928

This gelatin silver print of Cornus Mas buds, was made by Karl Blossfeldt, a German photographer, sculptor, educator, and botanist who lived from 1865 to 1932. Blossfeldt didn't use photography as a form of artistic expression, but rather as a teaching tool. His close-up studies of plants, which he called "Art Forms in Nature," were intended to reveal the underlying structures and patterns found in the natural world. He built his own cameras and equipment, allowing him to magnify his subjects up to 30 times, and captured the textures and details with incredible precision. The gelatin silver printing process gives the photograph a stark, almost clinical quality, emphasizing the geometry and symmetry of the buds. By isolating these natural forms from their context, Blossfeldt drew parallels between nature and the machine age, suggesting that even in the organic world, there is a kind of inherent industrial design at work. Blossfeldt's work challenges our traditional notions of art and craft, highlighting the beauty and complexity that can be found in even the simplest of materials.