Equisetum Hyemale (Rough Horsetail) before 1928

Karl Blossfeldt made this gelatin silver print of Equisetum Hyemale, also known as Rough Horsetail. With its careful, close-up framing and stark lighting, the photograph transforms ordinary plant specimens into monumental architectural forms. Look at the surface texture – it’s incredible how the light rakes across each ridge and segment, making them seem almost carved. The plant almost looks like a constructed object. I mean, this photo really gets under the skin of the plant, right? It's like the plant is performing, showing off its geometric skeleton. Blossfeldt printed in black and white, a choice that heightens the abstract qualities of the plant, distilling its form to pure shape and pattern. This image reminds me a little of Bernd and Hilla Becher, with their deadpan documentation of industrial structures. But Blossfeldt finds similar forms already existing in nature, blurring the line between the organic and the constructed. Nature's a process, after all. And so is art.