Cucurbita pepo
Ernst Fuhrmann American, born Germany
Not on view
Poet, philosopher, editor, and photographer, Ernst Fuhrmann was a respected, if somewhat eccentric, figure in German cultural life in the 1920s. This photograph was included in Fuhrmann's book The Plant as a Living Creature, in which he set forth his provocative philosophy of biological life. Animal and plant, he believed, "are two opposite poles of one and the same vital substance," and in his photographs he sought to accentuate the animal instincts that lie dormant in plants. This detail of the fantastically coiled tendrils of a pumpkin vine presents a compelling image of latent energy and mysterious processes of organic growth.
