Karl Blossfeldt | Asclepias Syriaca | c1900s.
This photograph is of a flower in close up. It has five petals and another five on the inside but they’re curled and look like mushrooms, the middle of the flower is star shaped. It is dark around the outside of the flower and gets lighter towards the centre. It has lots of shades and tones on, dark greys, almost black and some parts like the middle where it is also white. There are lots of shapes on the image where the flower has curled and bent. There are different textures on it as you can see the outside is hairy. There are 3 more tiny petals on the bottom but only 3 not 5, the underneath of the bottom one and the right side one are empty.
Blossfeldt was known for his highly detailed close ups of botanical specimens, he captures the beauty of things that we may not see or simply overlook. It’s like a whole new world but inside something so small. He has taken just the flower head out of its context and placed it on a blank background making us study the flower more and notice more in it, usually most people would just see a flower head, but by doing so it makes you see all the intricate patterns and designs of the flower, as Blossfeldt said himself "My botanical documents should contribute to restoring the link with nature. They should reawaken a sense of nature, point to its teeming richness of form, and prompt the viewer to observe for himself the surrounding plant world." He has achieved it very well as now we can see all the hairs and shapes that are made. It makes us admire it more and makes you think about it more, it almost looks like a piece of machinery or a part of some sort of machine, maybe a wheel or a cog. Some of his other work almost looks like wrought iron statues that really stand out and make a statement and there is also a sense of symmetry in a lot of his work as they resemble a circle shape and are usually, more or less the same of each side. He shows us that nature really is fascinating and glorious. As there aren’t any colours to distract us, we have to look more at the tone, shape and design of the flower; this was a good idea as he has achieved his agenda more. He got his inspiration for his work from industrial designers and art students to demonstrate the structure and the beauty inherent in plant forms.
This photograph is of a flower in close up. It has five petals and another five on the inside but they’re curled and look like mushrooms, the middle of the flower is star shaped. It is dark around the outside of the flower and gets lighter towards the centre. It has lots of shades and tones on, dark greys, almost black and some parts like the middle where it is also white. There are lots of shapes on the image where the flower has curled and bent. There are different textures on it as you can see the outside is hairy. There are 3 more tiny petals on the bottom but only 3 not 5, the underneath of the bottom one and the right side one are empty.
Blossfeldt was known for his highly detailed close ups of botanical specimens, he captures the beauty of things that we may not see or simply overlook. It’s like a whole new world but inside something so small. He has taken just the flower head out of its context and placed it on a blank background making us study the flower more and notice more in it, usually most people would just see a flower head, but by doing so it makes you see all the intricate patterns and designs of the flower, as Blossfeldt said himself "My botanical documents should contribute to restoring the link with nature. They should reawaken a sense of nature, point to its teeming richness of form, and prompt the viewer to observe for himself the surrounding plant world." He has achieved it very well as now we can see all the hairs and shapes that are made. It makes us admire it more and makes you think about it more, it almost looks like a piece of machinery or a part of some sort of machine, maybe a wheel or a cog. Some of his other work almost looks like wrought iron statues that really stand out and make a statement and there is also a sense of symmetry in a lot of his work as they resemble a circle shape and are usually, more or less the same of each side. He shows us that nature really is fascinating and glorious. As there aren’t any colours to distract us, we have to look more at the tone, shape and design of the flower; this was a good idea as he has achieved his agenda more. He got his inspiration for his work from industrial designers and art students to demonstrate the structure and the beauty inherent in plant forms.
