Michael Wolf: Revisiting architectural photography

Much of Michael Wolf’s photographic work focuses on life in Asian cities, with population density, privacy and voyeurism as recurring themes. Whether from an individual’s point of view or that of the masses, Wolf’s work, when collectively seen, speaks of the difficulty and – at times – “unseizable” world we inhabit.

Wolf’s portrayals from Architecture of Density are astonishing yet perplexing linear abstractions, taking traditional architectural photography into a new realm. Hong Kong’s skyscrapers appear as everlasting repetitions of colour and concrete without reference to sky or ground, and exude the possibility of infinity while conveying a dizzying loss of orientation and sense of confinement.

Using the photographic medium in a traditional sense – without digital manipulation – the topics addressed in Wolf’s works strongly touch the nerve of our times. Whether presenting us with a novel take on photojournalism or a new way of interpreting classical street photography, Wolf uses the medium’s traditions to confront both cultural identities of cities and our suggested privacy within them.

Born in 1954 in Munich, Germany, Michael Wolf grew up in the United States, Europe and Canada, and studied at UC Berkeley and the Folkwang School in Essen, Germany. In 1995, Wolf moved to Hong Kong to work as a contract photographer for Stern and study Chinese cultural identity. He rose to fame after publishing two photo books visualizing China, Sitting in China and Hong Kong: Front Door/Back Door, winning the World Press Photo Award in 2005 and 2010, and again in May 2011, receiving a World Press Photo Award Honourable Mention. In 2010, Wolf was shortlisted for the Prix Pictet photography prize.