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In a confined space: Michael Wolf and life in the metropolis

Tight, oppressive, crushing: What makes extreme lack of space with the people? What is the price we pay for a life in the metropolis? The Michael Wolf shows with his impressive photographs – to see in Hamburg.



Static, monotonic, colossal, heaven and earth are not depicted on it: The large-format image of a living depends on complex in Hong Kong from the ceiling. “For the Museum visitor the impression arises from the fact that he was in the midst of this huge metropolis,” says the curator Ingo Taubhorn.

The exhibition “Michael Wolf – Life in Cities” in the Haus der Photographie in Hamburg’s Deichtorhallen shows until March works from the multiple award-winning photographer Michael Wolf. It is a collection that combines his beginnings as a documentary photographer, up to his most recent, previously unpublished Work.

Issues such as mass consumption, privacy, and population density to draw like a red thread through his Oeuvre. They reflect the conditions of life in metropolises such as Hong Kong, Tokyo, Chicago and Paris.

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Hong Kong: Sleeping in a cage

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Hong Kong: Sleeping in a cage

Painting or photography?

“Michael Wolf does not invent photography. He uses it in a very simple manner. He doesn’t approach the immediate reality, he’s manipulating, he’s just watching. And for that, he has an incredible sense for particular situations,” says Taubhorn, is impressed by the series “Tokyo Compression”: “Michael Wolf took these photos at a certain subway Station in Tokyo and the people, the place daily, large distances between work and home to be photographed. These images are disturbing but at the same time kind of fascinating.”

Another famous series by Michael Wolf Architecture of Density”, which is also exhibited in Hamburg”. The photographer puts the focus on the architecture of Hong Kong, one of the most densely populated cities in the world. “The facades are photographed from a certain distance, then only patterns that have a certain kind of Aesthetics. The viewer has the impression that it is painting. It is believed also no people. But if you come closer, you can see one or the other on the balcony, for example, when hanging the Laundry,” explains Ingo Taubhorn.

The Beginnings

Michael Wolf – the chronicler of the Everyday

Michael Wolf born 1954 in Munich, 14 years later, he considers for the first Time with a camera in Hand, to pay his parents for his birthday – and makes the first picture. A passion which still grips him today. His Childhood and youth he spent in the United States and Canada. With nearly 20 years he begins a study of the photography and works as a freelance documentary photographer in Germany can do. Later, he moves to Hong Kong, where he works as a photographer for the German magazine “Stern”. His stays in cities such as Hong Kong and Paris are the source of Inspiration – a sober analysis of the Everyday. The extreme density, anonymity, and dynamics fascinate him. But at some point the city itself is too narrow for him – he withdraws to the island of Cheung Chau, where he lives until today.

The exhibition “Michael Wolf – Life in Cities” is up to 3. To see the March at the house of Photography in Hamburg. The works on view range from his final project about the coal mining town of Bottrop-Ebel (1976) to his most recent series “Paris Rooftops” (2014), “Hong Kong Coat Hangers” (2016-2018), “The Real Toy Story” (2004-2018), and “Cheung Chau Sunrises” (2018).

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