Plantstudie 1928

Karl Blossfeldt made this gelatin silver print called Plantstudie, but we don’t know exactly when. These plant forms are so amazing, aren’t they? It makes you wonder about the act of looking, and the impulse to record what you see. I try to imagine Karl, what he might have been thinking when he composed the shot and focused his lens? It almost feels like a portrait—the plants are so upright, each with its unique character, rendered in light and shadow. There’s so much attention to detail in the way the light reveals the textures and shapes, giving you an almost tactile experience of the image. Blossfeldt dedicated his life to documenting the natural world, revealing the underlying structures and patterns that connect all living things. So much is left to our interpretation, and maybe that’s the point. That’s what the best art does.