ART FORMS IN NATURE: EXAMPLES FROM THE PLANT WORLD PHOTOGRAPHED DIRECT FROM NATURE by Karl Blossfeldt

 E. Weythe, 1929, First British edition, 120 pp/, 9 3/4" X 12 1/2", Hardcover

Very good with some general handling (please see photos)

At first intended as personal reference material in Blossfeldt's work as sculptor and teacher, these remarkable nature photographs attained critical acclaim in 1928 when he published Urformen der Kunst (Archetypes of Art).  While the style of the time was soft-focus, impressionistic photographs, Blossfeldt's photographs were sharp focus, using direct lighting to define form, and expose detail and texture. His enlargements (up to 27 times actual size) reveal structure that previously was invisible or overlooked by the naked eye.

Hard to overstate the importance of this work.

Scarce.