William Arnold - Edgeland Botanical Flora

Found this chap on Twitter, thought his work was pretty awesome. A Plymouth graduate myself, I am naturally rather keen on promoting his work. Cue -William Arnold, a visual artist and historian interested in the engagement of science, ecology and history in contemporary photo practice. 

The Magnolias Of Wilfred Aldwych

"His compositions, seek to explore aspects of temporality, the physical qualities of light and the role played by process in current debates surrounding the materiality of photography and the perceived authority of the photograph as historical document. 

Through seeking new ways to chemically challenge the medium, the works hark back evocatively to the early experiments of the first photographic pioneers, however the integral role of contemporary technology within the practice makes for a synthesis of the analogue and digital, past and present".

Work from his Edgland Botanical Flora Project:

I really, really like this body of work. I like all of this chaps work, but in particular this. Check it out on his website - there are so many more amazing images to be found. Touch of the Karl Blossfeldt in places, but all rather ghostly and ethereal, this collection of work to me really touched on how subtle and transient nature can be and how beautiful that is.

By William Arnold

By William Arnold

Edgeland Flora - work in progress by William Arnold

By William Arnold

These are rather nice

Emil Schildt is a self-taught photographer who has been taking pictures for more than 20 years. He is now working as a teacher in photography in the northern part of Denmark. His favourite techniques are cyanotypes, polymeregravure and liquid emulsions. Work like this makes me want to do a course in old fashioned photography...

Dried Leaf by Emil Schildt

Oilprint by Emil Schildt

Still Life with Skull by Emil Schildt

You can see more work here

Patterns from Nature Exhibition - V&A

Horst: Photographer of Style

6 September 2014 – 4 January 2015

V&A, London

Patterns from Nature Photographic Collage, about 1945. © Condé Nast / Horst Estate

I am pleased to announce that the V&A will be exhibiting several works by the renowned photographer, Horst P. Horst (1906-99) this Autumn/Winter. A master of light, composition and atmospheric illusion, Horst's extraordinary range of work never fails to express a relentless visual curiosity and passion for capturing the beauty in things. 

Although there are many dimensions to his dynamic portfolio, for us, I think it is the collection of photographs that make up Horst’s second book 'Patterns from Nature' (1946) that will grab our attention the most as botanical illustrators. In this book we find a surprising diversion from Horst's more glamorous, celebrity-based photographs. Instead we find many images of plants, shells and minerals. Many of these are in black and white and have been taken close-up. This series of images is therefore incredibly striking and appears to be a more personal reflection of Horst's raw experience as a photographer. 

This more natural and organic work was apparently partly inspired by Karl Blossfeldt's (1865–1932) photographs of plants . Upon seeing Blossfeldt's images, Horst was struck by ‘their revelation of the similarity of vegetable forms to art forms like wrought iron and Gothic architecture’. Horst’s interest was also linked to the technical purity of ‘photographic seeing’, a philosophy associated with the New Objectivity movement of the 1920s and ’30s. During this time, practitioners would apparently take natural forms out of their context and would study them in such detail that they became unfamiliar, remarkable and unexpected.