Michael Wolf - Hong Kong - 2006

Michael Wolf’s milestone Hong Kong photobook

The series has earned Wolf international acclaim, and his photographs have become almost symbolic for Wolf’s adopted home of Hong Kong. Focusing on the specific visual elements of Hong Kong, Michael Wolf has depicted life amidst the architectural and social densification of one of the most crowded cities in the world and developed a distinctive photographic style. Any trace of a skyline or horizon is absent from his images, resulting in a flattening of space, transforming the city into a relentless abstraction of urban development from which the eye can no longer escape. With this visual irritation, Michael Wolf conveys the feeling of an expansion of the buildings into infinity, which may also be the spatial experience of Hong Kong residents. These photographs have struck a nerve and have become part of our collective memory.