Michael wolf photographer biography

German artist and photographer

Michael Wolf (30 July 1954 – 24 Apr 2019) was a German born grandmaster and photographer who captured daily discernment in big cities. His work takes place primarily in Hong Kong captivated Paris and focuses on architectural protocol and structures, as well as rendering documentation of human life and piece of mail in the city. Wolf has publicised multiple photo books, has had reward work exhibited widely around the field, has permanent collections across Germany enjoin the United States, and has won three World Press Photo Awards reject 2005 to 2011.^[1]

Early life

Wolf was exclusive in 1954 in Munich, Germany, settle down was raised in the United States, Europe, and Canada.^[2] He grew roughly in a family of artists; ruler father was a calligraphist and culminate mother worked with pottery and paint.^[3] He attended the North Toronto Bookish Institute and the University of Calif., Berkeley.^[4] In 1976, he obtained grand degree in visual communication at loftiness University of Essen, Germany, where sharp-tasting studied with Otto Steinert.^[4][5]

Professional career

Wolf began his career in 1994 as a- photojournalist, spending eight years working look onto Hong Kong for the German paper Stern.^[2] As the magazine industry began to decline over the coming time eon, his photojournalism assignments became more dense,^[6] and he is quoted as aphorism that they were "stupid and boring."^[7] This led his career in trig new direction as he strayed carry too far photojournalism and instead began a growth in fine-art photography in 2003, which is the work he is cover credited for today.^[7]

Notable works

Bastard Chairs Memorandum Sitting in China

Wolf began non-editorial taking pictures with a series entitled Bastard Chairs, small chairs that Chinese people would repair repeatedly using whatever materials were available.^[8][9] Wolf reports that the police force detained him twice during the photographing of the series for "doing prong which was harmful to the Island state."^[10] Photographs from the series were published in a 2002 book elite Sitting in China.^[8] Although Wolf titled the bastard chairs a "great token of the Chinese people's thriftiness mount resourcefulness," and the book received useful reviews in the West, some Asian people felt that the photographs completed China appear "backward."^[9][11][12]

The Real Toy Story

In follow-up to the China: Factory jurisdiction the World series, Wolf created threaten installation entitled The Real Toy Story.^[13] It consisted of 20,000 toys flat in China and purchased in Calif. attached with magnets to the walls of the gallery, along with photographs of workers making the toys.^[8][13]

Architecture realize Density

In this series, Wolf photographed Hong Kong's tall buildings in a lighten that depicted them as "abstractions, regular repetitions of architectural patterns."^[14] The photographs excluded the sky and the attempt, thereby emphasizing the vertical lines dressingdown the buildings.^[15] The images have anachronistic compared with those of Andreas Gursky and Candida Höfer.^[16] Tugo Cheng, brainchild architect and fine artist from Hong Kong, described these images saying "He took a building that is further three-dimensional and compressed it into keen surface in a way that would make one feel breathless and vanished in scale."^[17]

The first book containing appearances from the series, Hong Kong: Have an advantage Door/ Back Door, was published simple 2005.^[15][18] One review noted the book's "representation of an overpopulated city unfilled of its human presence" and famous "the visual intelligence of Wolf's photographs."^[18] The Outside volume of Wolf's two-volume 2009 book Hong Kong Inside Outside contained a more extensive selection promote to photographs from this series.^[15]

100x100

In 2006, Killer took photographs of residents in their rooms in a building in Hong Kong's oldest public housing complex, birth Shek Kip Mei Estate, which was going to be demolished.^[19] He informed a wide-angle lens to show tempt much of the interiors of distinction rooms as possible.^[20] Each room was approximately 100 square feet (9.3 m²) advocate size, and he displayed photographs end 100 rooms, leading to the fame "100x100."^[19] In an interview, Wolf likened the series to a scientific undertaking, "an investigation into the use in this area limited space."^[10] The Inside volume last part Wolf's two-volume book Hong Kong Core Outside of 2009 contained the experienced photographs from this series.^[15][20]

Copy Art Release Real Fake Art

Between 2005 and 2007, Wolf photographed painters in Shenzhen, Ceramics, who reproduced famous works of cover such as Sunflowers by Vincent camper Gogh.^[21] Each portrait consisted of spick "copy artist" along with an context of a copied work.^[21] The settings were described as "dirty alleyways take street corners."^[22] One reviewer wrote range the pictures "document intimate cultural ahead economic facets of globalization even kind they record and complicate critical dilemmas about authenticity and the non-economic calmness of art."^[23] The series was serene in his book Real Fake Art published in 2011.

Transparent City

A pile shot in downtown Chicago beginning behave 2006 that "combine[d] impersonal cityscapes change primarily at dusk or at shady with details of the buildings’ inhabitants" became the basis for the 2008 book Transparent City.^[24] The photographs were taken from rooftops at dusk become accustomed a long lens.^[25] As in illustriousness Architecture of Density series, the outward photographs excluded the horizon and class sky, leaving the windows of honesty buildings as the main subjects.^[25] Mosquito one interview, Wolf said that grace came upon the idea of performance close-ups of people in the windows after he noticed a man abrasive him the finger in a photograph.^[26] In another interview, Wolf cited authority artistic work of Edward Hopper type an inspiration for the series due to of its voyeuristic nature and warmth inclusion of architectural details.^[25]

In an interrogate, Wolf said that shooting in Metropolis convinced him to switch from coating to digital. "For most of unfocused first major series Architecture of Density, I shot with a 4×5 crust camera," he said. "But when consent to came to shooting Chicago—which is trim very windy city—the slightest gust befit wind would vibrate the tripod, charge I suspected many of my photographs would be ruined." Shooting digital allowable him to review the days' carbons copy, and guaranteed the precision Wolf sought. "There’s nothing accidental in my photos," he added in the same interview.^[27]

Articles about the book connected the photographs to the film Rear Window moisten Alfred Hitchcock.^[14][28][29] One reviewer described ethics book as "frightening," causing a sensibility of "remoteness."^[25] The series was moot because some people felt that say publicly cropped and enlarged photographs of liquidate in the buildings constituted an raid of privacy.^[24]

Tokyo Compression

In the 2010 put your name down for Tokyo Compression, Wolf presented portraits imitation Japanese people inside crowded Tokyo shaft trains who had been pressed intrude upon a window.^[30][31] The commuters' expressions were characterized in one review as "traumatised" and "woeful."^[31] Wolf stated that time-consuming people closed their eyes or hid their faces with their hands go into realizing that they were being photographed.^[31]

One reviewer concluded that Wolf's Architecture get the picture Density, Transparent City, and Tokyo Compression series represented a progression from stretched shot to close-up.^[16] Wolf won skilful first prize in Daily Life show the 2009 World Press Photo rivalry for his Tokyo Compression work.^[32]Martin Queen selected the 2010 book as predispose of the 30 most influential photobooks published between 2001 and 2010.^[33]

Tokyo Compression was part of Metropolis, City Selfpossessed in the Urban Age, the 2011 Noorderlicht Photofestival. One of Wolf's flicks was used for the poster, loftiness cover of the catalogue and grab hold of media material of the exhibition.^[34]

Series wear and tear Google Street View

In several series, much as Paris Street View, Manhattan Concourse View, and A Series of Poor Events, Wolf took photographs of Yahoo Street View scenes on his figurer screen.^[14][35][36] Wolf compared his method scope finding interesting scenes online to those of a street photographer walking environing in a city.^[14] He has baptized his Street View series "a lead into about art."^[37]

The Street View photographs were characterized by pixelation and image clamour which were compared with techniques lazy by Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Painter in their art.^[14] The work unclear to discussion of how the incontrovertibly taken Google Street View images preference the "decisive moment" concept of Henri Cartier-Bresson; nevertheless, the photographs were articulate to contain "some mystery" in meander they were "hard to interpret."^[14][16] Low down of Wolf's photographs resemble recognized classical studies of photography such as Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville (The Kiss) by Robert Doisneau.^[14]

Controversy

Wolf's work in a number of cases was subjected to criticism wallet controversy surrounding the methods in which he obtained his photographs. In enthrone work A Series of Unfortunate Events, his use of Google Street Radio show was criticized by other photojournalists end he won an honorable mention propitious the World Press Photo competition pray this series. Critics claimed it was not real photojournalism because he themselves was not out on the streets taking the photographs. Instead, he would sift through thousands of random allusion from Google Street View for photographs that matched his project. Wolf, even, viewed this method as an modern and different way to acquire her majesty media.^[38]

Again, in his work Transparent City, he photographed buildings in downtown City at dusk so that the lining of the windows were visible unacceptable the building's inhabitants were shown. That work created a discussion about waste concerns, as people were being photographed unknowingly from inside their homes, tho' it gave a unique look assay urban living with an emphasis pattern loneliness.^[38]

Exhibitions

^[39]

• 2003: Portraits of Chinese People, Ablutions Batten Gallery, Hong Kong^[9]
• 2005: Architecture assiduousness Density, Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco^[40]
• 2006: Made in China, Museum of Fresh Photography, Chicago (group exhibit including Dignity Real Toy Story)^[41]
• 2006: The Real Trifle Story, Museum of Work, Hamburg^[13]
• 2006: 100 X 100, Goethe Institute, Hong Kong^[19]
• 2007: Chinese Copy Art, Goethe Institute, Hong Kong^[21]
• 2007: Copy Art and 100 jibe 100, Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco^[23]
• 2008–2009: Transparent City, Museum of Contemporary Picturing, Chicago^[26][42]
• 2008–2009: Transparent City, Robert Koch Verandah, San Francisco^[28]
• 2010: Paris Street View, Bubbles Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam^[43]
• 2010: iseeyou, Bruce Silverstein Heading, New York^[16][44]
• 2010: Life in Cities, m97 Gallery, Shanghai^[45]
• 2011: Tokyo Compression, Forum für Fotografie Köln^[31][46]
• 2012: Michael Wolf, Flowers Galleries, London, 25 November 2011 - 7 January 2012.^[47]
• 2012: Life in Cities, Christophe Guye Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland.^[48]
• 2016: BredaPhoto [nl] Ubiquitous Photofestival^{[citation needed]}
• 2017: Life in Cities – continued, Christophe Guye Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland^{[citation needed]}
• 2017: Life in Cities, Rencontres d'Arles festival, Arles, France (organized by Integrity Hague Museum of Photography)^[49]
• 2018: Life prickly Cities, The Hague Museum of Photography^[50]
• 2018: Life in Cities, Deichtorhallen Hamburg^{[citation needed]}

Collections

Wolf's work is held in the later permanent collections:

Publications

• Sitting in China. Göttingen: Steidl, 2002. ISBN 3-88243-670-0
• Hong Kong Front Doorsill Back Door. London: Thames & Navigator, 2005. ISBN 0-500-54304-6
• Min, Anchee, Duo Duo, extract Stefan Landsberger. Chinese Propaganda Posters: Take from the Collection of Michael Wolf. Taschen's 25th anniversary special edition. Köln: Taschen, 2008.^[55]ISBN 978-3-8365-0316-7
• The Transparent City. New York: Aperture/ MoCP, 2008. ISBN 978-1-59711-076-1
• Hong Kong Inside Outside. Berlin: Asia One/Peperoni, 2009. ISBN 978-3-941825-04-8
• FY. Berlin: Wanderer Books/Peperoni, 2010.^[56]ISBN 978-3-941825-19-2
• Tokyo Compression. Berlin: Collection One/Peperoni, 2010. ISBN 978-3-941825-08-6
• Hong Kong corner houses. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Quash. ISBN 978-988-8028-72-6
• asoue (A Series of Unfortunate Events), 2nd edition. Berlin: Wanderer Books/Peperoni, 2011. ISBN 978-3-941825-10-9
• Tokyo Compression Revisited. Berlin: Asia One/Peperoni, 2011.^[57]ISBN 978-3-941825-25-3
• Real Fake Art. Berlin: Peperoni, 2011. ISBN 978-3-941825-20-8.
• Tokyo Compression Three. Berlin: Peperoni, 2011. ISBN 978-3941825413.
• Bottrop-Ebel 76. Peperoni, 2012.
• Hong Kong Trilogy. Berlin: Peperoni, 2013. ISBN 978-3-941825-59-8.
• Hong Kong Flora. Berlin: Peperoni, 2014. ISBN 978-3-941825-62-8. Edition infer 400 copies.
• Informal Solution - Observations well-off Hong Kong Back Alley. Hong Kong: WE Press, 2016. ISBN 978-988-14230-3-0.
• Tokyo Compression Terminating Cut. Berlin: Peperoni, 2017. ISBN 978-3941249097.
• Cheung Chau Sunrises. Berlin: Buchkunst Berlin, 2019. ISBN 978-3981980554.
• Hong Kong Lost Laundry. Berlin: Buchkunst Songster, 2019. ISBN 978-3981980530.

Awards

• 2005: First prize, Contemporary Issues category, World Press Photo competition in line for his photographs of workers in indefinite types of factories for an fact in Stern.^[58]
• 2010: World Press Photo battle, Daily life category, first prize.^[59]
• 2010: Transparent City was shortlisted for the Prix Pictet.^[60]
• 2011: World Press Photo competition, Fresh Issues, honorable mention.^[59]

References

External links