Karl Blossfeldt (TASCHEN Icons Series)

"He succeeds in doing what an awful lot of plant photographers try to do now. Many of them are influenced by him. He looks at close-ups of plants through a macro lens in which he sees details of plants which you and I have never seen before, because they are seen so close up. This is another black-and-white book, so it is all to do with form and texture. He was German and lived from 1865-1932. In the book it describes how he photographed the flowers, buds and seed capsules all in extreme close-up. When he published his book, Art Forms in Nature, in 1928, he became famous overnight. He never considered himself a photographer but produced material to assist him in teaching at Berlin’s Arts and Crafts School. The book was meant to offer inspiration to future designers. He is very good at paring down extraneous detail and actually going to the core of the subject. He isolated things from their surroundings by photographing plants against a neutral background. One wouldn’t want to do that all the time, but there is a fine consistency in this work."