Urban Landscape: Michael Wolf Research

Today in class, we looked at Michael Wolf, a photographer known for his works in urban environments. This is in relation to the urban landscape portfolio or gallery that we're working on.

Michael Wolf, born 30 July 1954 and died 24 April 2019, is a German photographer. He has published more than 13 photo books throughout his career as a photographer from 1994. As stated in Flowers Gallery, "Michael Wolf is known for capturing the hyper-density of cities, such as Hong Kong, Tokyo and Chicago in his large-scale photographs of high-rise architecture and intimate studies of the lives of city dwellers."

I will be discussing one of his photo books, Tokyo Compression, published in 2010. It presented portraits of Japanese people inside the crowded Tokyo subway trains, pressed against the trains' windows. According to Wolf in an article by Independent, many of the commuters in the photos were unhappy with Wolf taking their photos but made them aware of the tight condition they were in, "My being there made them suddenly aware of how horrible the situation is and they were ashamed of it, but there was nothing they could do." He also said that some tried to hide their faces by closing their eyes or hid their faces with their hands upon realizing that they were being photographed, "They couldn't move away, leave the train, so some people tried to hide behind their hands. Others had this idea that if they closed their eyes, and they couldn't see me, then somehow I couldn't see them." (Williams, 2011)

This is one of the pictures in Tokyo Compression that I will be analysing and talking about

Source: lensculture

The picture expressed the horrible and saddening feeling of the subways and city life in Tokyo. The photo made it look as if the man was trapped inside, gasping for air because of the cramped trains full of people feeling trapped like him. Along with that, Wolf's use of composition, mainly the rule of thirds and the window lining to block his face made the photo feel even more confined. Other things I noticed as well is the dirty colors of green and blue and the condensation on the window. I feel that the condensation in the window expressed how they were separated from the outside world and the dirty colors gave the photo an uneasy feeling. 

I also feel sympathetic for the subject in the photo after reading the article on this photo book on the Independent. Its because the commuters must've been more aware of the horrible conditions they were in and may feel humiliated when Wolf took photographs of them in such conditions. Yet, another thing that also caught my attention is how these photos of trapped people were taken in a subway, a public transport which means that a lot of people in Tokyo has to undergo through hours of suffering in the train just to commute for both work and personal reasons.

Sources:

  • Michael Wolf photography (no date) Michael Wolf Photography. Available at: https://photomichaelwolf.com/#biography (Accessed: January 27, 2023).
  • Michael Wolf (no date) Michael Wolf | World Press Photo. Available at: https://www.worldpressphoto.org/michael-wolf (Accessed: January 27, 2023).
  • Tokyo Compression - photographs by Michael Wolf (no date) LensCulture. Available at: https://www.lensculture.com/articles/michael-wolf-tokyo-compression (Accessed: January 27, 2023).
  • Williams, H. (2011) The end of the line: Michael Wolf's photographs of the Tokyo Rush Hour, The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/the-end-of-the-line-michael-wolf-s-photographs-of-the-tokyo-rush-hour-will-make-every-commuter-shudder-2182891.html (Accessed: January 27, 2023).


Comments

  1. Zoe Van-de-Velde29 January 2023 at 12:02

    Okay good that you looked at this work and considered it, I do think you could have written more here but it is a good start

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Website Research: Hirokazu Kore-eda and Dany Cooke

Image
In this post, I will look into two websites by filmmakers and compare both of them. This research will help me on creating my own website by considering the use of colors, layout, typography, image, useability, navigation, and my overall thoughts on the website. I will be looking into Hirokazu Kore-eda and Dany Cooke's website, with both being filmmakers and quite experienced in the filmmaking industry. I would like to learn from two websites of two very different directors, with Kore-eda a 60-year-old filmmaker that is internationally known, and Cooke a young freelance filmmaker. Hirokazu Kore-eda's Website First off, I will talk about Hirokazu Kore-eda's website. From the home page, the website looks very simple, with a showcase of stills from his films. I noticed that his website only consists of Top, News, Profile & Works, as well as Message in the navigation, with the layout being centered and in a long bar. When I scrolled down, there is his twitter feed, news f
Read more

Website Creation: Gallery Page

Image
In this post, I will talk about the process of creating my Gallery page for my website. Because the layout of the gallery page already exists, I don't have to choose a template. The font I will be using Avenir. I began by editing the "My Gallery" section on top, then I wrote a short description on it as well.  Moving on, I moved on to the projects. I deleted most projects that the website has, and included my project, which is Grief & Loss Script, a 10-15 page long script on the theme of grief and loss. In it, I also included pictures of my script and my Milanote. In the future, I will be updating this project section with my progress on the script. After finishing the "My Gallery" desktop page, I moved to edit the mobile version. I changed the title to 24px and the description to 14px. I also tried to change the size of the project since it's too small, but after trying it, the size can't be altered.  With that, I had finished my Gallery page. Check
Read more

Reflection: Moments of Sorrow

Image
I gained an interest in theme of grief and loss through films and through my own concerns. I feel that the theme itself is very heavy, and is a challenge to write because of its complexity. However, I wrote this story for more personal reasons. I often thought about whether or not I will be ready when people I loved died, and how I will be able to move on from those moments of sorrow. As such, I feel that this is personally a way of preparing myself to face that fear. Along with this, I wrote this story because I want to not only understand the nature of grief and how it affects people, but of how we can move forward from an unforgettable loss of a loved one. As an aspiring filmmaker, I am very much eager to learn about all aspects of filmmaking, especially writing which I view to be the most important aspect of films as its often the core of the story and film itself. As such, this project has helped me to do more writing, especially in terms of having to fit the story into only 15 pa
Read more