Karl Blossfeldt was a photographer in fin-de-siécle Berlin. Blossfeldt’s photographs are devoted entirely to plant features: leaves, buds, seed pods, tendrils and twigs; drawing focus from their sinuous forms.

In 1899, Blossfeldt began teaching design at the School of Decorative Arts in Berlin. Blossfeldt would meticulously arrange his specimens against stark backgrounds and magnify them in the studio, before using them as models to teach drawing to his design students.

In 1928, the popularity of the publication ‘Urformen der Kunst’ containing Blossfeldt’s photographs confirmed his status throughout the Western world.

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