Overview participating exhibitions
Metropolis
2011
Metropolis
Michael Wolf
TOKYO COMPRESSION (Japan, 2008-2011)
Always returning to the same small subway station in Tokyo, the German photographer Michael Wolf recorded the faces and bodies of commuters pressed up against the windows of the packed subway cars. The passengers stare vacantly, lost in their thoughts and sombre – apparently in the largest urban conglomerate people are reduced to the status of cattle. In his series TOKYO COMPRESSION Wolf focuses in on this detail and raises it to a symbol. In doing so he irrevocably poses the question: can people maintain their dignity and identity in the modern megalopolis?
Biography
Michael Wolf (West Germany, 1954) studied at the University of California in Berkeley and at Folkwang Universität in Essen, Germany. In 1994 he moved to Hong Kong, where he had an eight year stint as a photographer for Stern. Since then he has worked on autonomous projects that focus on the developments in Asian cities. He has won a World Press Photo Award twice, and published nine photo books.