Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Michael Wolf photography Architecture of Density

    I really like Michael Wolf's urban images - they're about as abstract as you can go with 'straight' photography - often simplified into formal vertical and horizontal shapes and rendered in muted colours, I see them as a sort of abstract expressionist version of photography.
    Wolf was born in Germany in 1954, raised in the United States and Canada, returning to Germany to study photography before spending the vast majority of his career in Asia.
    In his best known series on Hong Kong’s highly compressed, often brutal architecture, Architecture of Density, Wolf uses the city’s sky-scraping tower blocks to great effect, eliminating the sky and horizon line to flatten each image and turn these façades into seemingly never-ending abstractions.
    The formalism and deadpan approach of Architecture of Density echoes the work that emerged from the Düsseldorf school of Bernd and Hilla Becher (see earlier post). Like the work of Andreas Gursky (see preceding post) or Thomas Struth, Wolf’s photographs reveal a desire to document and connect with the world around him, but with a contemporary visual approach.
    I’m showing examples of Wolf’s work in two blog posts – the first with images from the Architecture of Density series, the second from The Transparent City series, dealing with images from Chicago.


    Wolf has lived and worked in Hong Kong since 1995. Stimulated by the region's
    complex urban dynamics, he makes dizzying photographs of its architecture.
    One of the most densely populated metropolitan areas in the world, Hong Kong
    has an overall density of nearly 6,700 people per square kilometer. The majority of
    its citizens live in flats in high-rise buildings. In Architecture of Density, Wolf
    investigates these vibrant city blocks, finding a mesmerizing abstraction in the
    buildings' facades.


    Some of the structures in the series are photographed without reference to the
    context of sky or ground, and many buildings are seen in a state of repair or
    construction: their walls covered with a grid of scaffolding or the soft colored
    curtains that protect the streets below from falling debris. From a distance, such
    elements become a part of the photograph's intricate design.


    Upon closer inspection of each photograph, the anonymous public face of the city
    is full of rewarding detail- suddenly public space is private space, and large
    swatches of color give way to smaller pieces of people's lives. The trappings of the
    people are still visible here: their days inform the detail of these buildings. Bits of
    laundry and hanging plants pepper the tiny rectangles of windows - the only
    irregularities in this orderly design.


    In 2002, the San Francisco Chronicle called Wolf's work in Hong Kong "most
    improbable and humanly alert". In previous series, Wolf described the vernacular
    culture of the street. His early vision of the region dwelt on personal aesthetic
    gestures left in back doors and alleyways, such as makeshift seating in the streets.
    In these photographs, small tokens of human presence took precedence over
    monumental architecture. Wolf continues to explore the theme of the organic
    metropolis- that which develops according to the caprice of its citizens as much as
    the planning of its architects. In Architecture of Density, his vision has evolved to
    evaluate the high-rises that shape the spatial experience of Hong Kong's citizens.
    Wolf finds in each building a singular character, despite its functional purpose and
    massive form.























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