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.
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Michael Wolf and life in the big city
Lack of space in big cities
Dense, Tetris Level 12, no air circulation, no view: The only feature that distinguishes the huge residential complex, is the coat of paint. In the series “Architecture of Density” is Michael Wolf, the lens of his camera on life in the metropolis of Hong Kong, where he has lived since 1994.
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Michael Wolf and life in the big city
Atmosphere of hopelessness
There is no above and no below, as if the whole of life in this would play a record. No sky, no earth – the photographer signed an atmosphere of hopelessness that leaves the viewer breathless.
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Michael Wolf and life in the big city
Oppressive Living Conditions
Michael Wolf wants to raise awareness, encourage, document. Already, housing is scarce and unaffordable. How do we want to live in 30 years, when, according to the United Nations, between nine and ten billion people will live on the earth? A direct reply from the photographer in his pictures. The remains to the viewer at the end.
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Michael Wolf and life in the big city
The price of urban life
Full trains – to the last corner crammed. Faces – against the discs are pressed. Michael Wolf has photographed the series “Tokyo Compression” commuters: anonymous, close, vulnerable.
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Michael Wolf and life in the big city
Cross-border
The series “Tokyo Compression” was created between 2010 and 2013. The artist was able to make the images only on a certain platform, which was not monitored by cameras. The Shooting in the Japanese capital is regulated in public places.
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Michael Wolf and life in the big city
The free Outlook
At some point, the metropolis was Michael Wolf closely. A life without retreat – impossible. The artist returned to the big city and settled on the island of Cheung Chau. The series, “Cheung Chau, Sunrise”. Every Morning, photographed by Michael Wolf from the roof of his house from the sunrise: Kitsch and romanticism, instead of the oppressive Tightness in the town.
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Michael Wolf and life in the big city
A sea of plastic
An impressive Installation consisting of 20,000 toys “made in China” is in the eye of the beholder to the ubiquitous consumption. In the midst of the colorful plastic range of the artist’s portraits of factory work is positioned workers: a strong socio-political Statement. For these images, Michael Wolf, 2005, was awarded the World Press Photo.
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Michael Wolf and life in the big city
A sober look
It is one of his earliest works – “Bottrop-Ebel” from the year 1976. It is the time when the Ruhr area is undergoing a profound structural change, and the people fear for their jobs and existence. The series was created in the context of wolf’s thesis at the Folkwang school in Essen.
-
Michael Wolf and life in the big city
Lack of space in big cities
Dense, Tetris Level 12, no air circulation, no view: The only feature that distinguishes the huge residential complex, is the coat of paint. In the series “Architecture of Density” is Michael Wolf, the lens of his camera on life in the metropolis of Hong Kong, where he has lived since 1994.
-
Michael Wolf and life in the big city
Atmosphere of hopelessness
There is no above and no below, as if the whole of life in this would play a record. No sky, no earth – the photographer signed an atmosphere of hopelessness that leaves the viewer breathless.
-
Michael Wolf and life in the big city
Oppressive Living Conditions
Michael Wolf wants to raise awareness, encourage, document. Already, housing is scarce and unaffordable. How do we want to live in 30 years, when, according to the United Nations, between nine and ten billion people will live on the earth? A direct reply from the photographer in his pictures. The remains to the viewer at the end.
-
Michael Wolf and life in the big city
The price of urban life
Full trains – to the last corner crammed. Faces – against the discs are pressed. Michael Wolf has photographed the series “Tokyo Compression” commuters: anonymous, close, vulnerable.
-
Michael Wolf and life in the big city
Cross-border
The series “Tokyo Compression” was created between 2010 and 2013. The artist was able to make the images only on a certain platform, which was not monitored by cameras. The Shooting in the Japanese capital is regulated in public places.
-
Michael Wolf and life in the big city
The free Outlook
At some point, the metropolis was Michael Wolf closely. A life without retreat – impossible. The artist returned to the big city and settled on the island of Cheung Chau. The series, “Cheung Chau, Sunrise”. Every Morning, photographed by Michael Wolf from the roof of his house from the sunrise: Kitsch and romanticism, instead of the oppressive Tightness in the town.
-
Michael Wolf and life in the big city
A sea of plastic
An impressive Installation consisting of 20,000 toys “made in China” is in the eye of the beholder to the ubiquitous consumption. In the midst of the colorful plastic range of the artist’s portraits of factory work is positioned workers: a strong socio-political Statement. For these images, Michael Wolf, 2005, was awarded the World Press Photo.
-
Michael Wolf and life in the big city
A sober look
It is one of his earliest works – “Bottrop-Ebel” from the year 1976. It is the time when the Ruhr area is undergoing a profound structural change, and the people fear for their jobs and existence. The series was created in the context of wolf’s thesis at the Folkwang school in Essen.
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).