Further Reading
Chapnick, Howard.Truth Needs No Ally. Inside Photo-
journalism. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri
Press, 1994.
Neubauer, Hendrik.Black Star. 60 Years of Photojournal-
ism. Koln, Germany: Konemann, 1997.
Schuneman, R. Smith, ed.Photographic Communication.
Principles, Problems and Challenges of Photojournalism.
New York: Hastings House, 1972.
Smith, C. Zoe. ‘‘Black Star Picture Agency:Life’sEuropean
Connection.’’Journalism History13, no. 1 (Spring 1986).KARL BLOSSFELDT
German
KarlBlossfeldtdepictedplantsbythethousands—in
photographs which feature flowers, buds, branched
stems, clusters, or seed capsules shot directly from
the side, seldom from an overhead view, and rarely
from a diagonal perspective. He usually placed the
subjects of his photographs against white or grey
cardboard, sometimes against a black background.
Hardly ever can details of the room be detected. The
light for his shots was obtained from a northern
window, making it diffuse, yet the light came from
the side, creating volume. The technique and proces-
singconditionsweresimple;onlythesizeofthenega-
tive format was more demanding. Nothing should
detract from the subject. Blossfeldt produced such
pictures for over 30 years and producing them was
nothing but work.
This line of work was not his main profession,
although his fame today rests on his photographs.
Rather, plant photography was part of an all-inclu-
sive whole, a teaching concept. He taught for over
30 years at theKunstgewerbeschule(School of Arts
and Crafts) in Berlin. Shortly before his death,
when already famous for his photography, he
announced his intention to publish his teaching
methods, in order to place the images in their
right as he saw it. Neither this plan nor that of
completing an archive of plant photographs was
ever realized. What has remained are bundles of
photographs, which have made history on their
own, and the memory of a teacher, who—like so
many in his field—left no lasting impression out-
side of his personal sphere. But Karl Blossfeldt’s
life achievement occupies a firm place in the history
of twentieth century photography.
To a certain extent, he had foreseen that he
neither would be recognized as a photographer in
the style of plant-loving still life painters nor as an
artist in his own field, sculpture. He knew that his
photographs were part of a straight vision just
recently discovered before his first exhibition in
1925, and he hoped that, at least, his photographs
would teach people to look more closely at nature,
even through art. Two sentences of his rare writings
encapsulate all of his ideas:
But the plant never falls into the sober representation of
a mere object; it forms and grows according to logic and
function, and, with primeval power, forces everything to
the most sublime artistic form....My flower documents
should contribute to restoring the relationship to nature.
They should reawaken a sense for nature, point out its
teeming richness of form, and prompt the viewer to
observe for himself the local plant world.
(Blossfeldt 1932, 5)
Born in the Harz Mountains in central Germany,
Karl Blossfeldt grew up in the country surrounded
by plants and animals, which he enjoyed drawing
and modeling. His education included an arts and
crafts apprenticeship, a craftmen’s scholarship for
further education in drawing, and some musical
instruction about which sparse biographical sources
provide no details. He appears to have wavered
between a career as a relief sculptor and that of a
singer’s rehearser until he was given the task that
was to determine his life’s work. As a student of the
Berlin School of Arts and Crafts he was asked to
produce models for drawing classes in accordance
with the method of Moritz Meurer, then his teacher.
Meurer and six of his students were given a grant to
live and work in Rome for six years in order to
produce a collection of drawings and models of
natural ornaments to be used by Germany’s indus-
try. Karl Blossfeldt was one of the two modelers in
this party.BLACK STAR