Michael Wolf - Paris (MINT CONDITION, SHRINK-WRAPPED) - 2019

WONDERFUL PHOTOBOOK by Michael Wolf ('Tokyo Compression') about Paris -
in BRANDNEW CONDITION.

German photographer Michael Wolf (1954-2019) started his career in Germany as pupil of the legendary Otto Steinert ('Subjective Photography') in Essen.

New, mint, unread; still originally shrink-wrapped in publisher's plastic foil.
COLLECTOR'S COPY.

'Michael Wolf achieved fame when he won the 2005 World Press Photo with his China, Factory of the World project, and the 2010 World Press Photo with his Tokyo Compression. The present book offers his personal take on the French capital. Singling out typical architectural features of the Parisian landscape he renders the seemingly banal immortal, as only he knows how.
Roofs, chimneys, and lights provide the pictures with rhythm, with their colours, shapes, and above all their volumes. Wolf invites the reader to enter his highly distinctive visual world and let his gaze follow the snaking lines of walls and gutters, dwelling on unexpected details lovingly picked out. The photographer’s underlying desire is to encourage us to consider the environmental and architectural context that provides a framework for all these rigorously rectangular features.
This dreamlike journey into a Paris viewed from the rooftops is underlined in the second part of the book. The shadows of trees decorate the façades of various buildings, creating a visual poetry and prompting an intimate dialogue where, in the absence of all human presence, nature and architecture blend into one another.'
(from the publisher)

5 Continents Editions. 2019. First edition, first printing.

Hardcover in linen (as issued). 300 x 250 mm. 76 pages. Photos: Michael Wolf. Text in English and Italian.

Great photobook by Michael Wolf - in perfect condition.

'Michael Wolf is a German-born photographer who captures the claustrophobia of city life through portraits of cramped apartments, unending skyscrapers, and crowded subway cars. The artist reveals the confluence of anonymity and individuality that exists in contemporary cities. “Does art always have to be nice? Or, to put it another way, why does the art we hang on our walls have to be nice?” the artist once mused. Born in 1954 in Munich, Germany, he was raised in the United States, Canada, and Europe before attending the North Toronto Collegiate Institute and the University of California, Berkeley. The artist would go on to receive a degree in visual communication at the University of Essen, studying under Otto Steinert during the 1970s. He also cites photographers Eugene Smith and Henri Cartier-Bresson as major influences. Wolf worked as a photojournalist for the German based magazine Stern in Hong Kong for a number of years before focusing on his own practice. The artist currently lives and works between Hong Kong and Paris, France. His works are held in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, IL, among others.'
(Artnet)

'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. Michael Wolf’s work on life in cities was always driven by a profound concern for the people living in these environments and for the consequences of massive urbanization on contemporary civilization. This commitment and engagement remained central throughout his career, first as a photojournalist and then as an artist.
Born in Munich in 1954, Wolf grew up in Canada, Europe, and the United States, studying at University of California, Berkeley and under Otto Steinert at the Folkwang School in Essen, Germany. He moved to Hong Kong in 1994, where he worked for eight years as a contract photographer for Stern Magazine, before moving on from photojournalism in 2003 to focus on his personal work. Wolf published more than 10 books, including the critically acclaimed titles Tokyo Compression and Architecture of Density.
Michael Wolf won first prize in the World Press Photo competition in 2005 and 2010 and received an honourable mention in 2011. In 2010 and 2016 he was nominated for the Prix Pictet photography award. His work features in many permanent collections, including those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Museum Folkwang,Essen; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam and Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag.Michael Wolf’s first major retrospective, Michael Wolf – Life in Cities, was held in 2017, premiering at the prestigious Rencontres de la Photographie festival in Arles, then moving on to The Hague Museum of Photography (2018), the Fondazione Stelline in Milan (2018), Deichtorhallen Hamburg (2018 –2019), and Urania, Berlin (2019). His work has also been exhibited at the bienal de arquitetura, Sáo Paulo, Brazil; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Gallery of the Goethe Institute, Hong Kong, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.'
(Flowers Gallery)

'Michael Wolf was a German born artist and photographer who captured daily life in big cities. His work takes place primarily in Hong Kong and Paris and focuses on architectural patterns and structures, as well as the documentation of human life and interaction in the city. Wolf has published multiple photo books, has had his work exhibited widely around the world, has permanent collections across Germany and the United States, and has won three World Press Photo Awards from 2005 to 2011.
Wolf was born in 1954 in Munich, Germany, and was raised in the United States, Europe, and Canada. He grew up in a family of artists; his father was a calligraphist and his mother worked with pottery and paint. He attended the North Toronto Collegiate Institute and the University of California, Berkeley. In 1976, he obtained a degree in visual communication at the University of Essen, Germany, where he studied with Otto Steinert.
Wolf began his career in 1994 as a photojournalist, spending eight years working in Hong Kong for the German magazine Stern. As the magazine industry began to decline over the coming years, his photojournalism assignments became more dense, and he is quoted as saying that they were "stupid and boring." This led his career in a new direction as he strayed from photojournalism and instead began a career in fine-art photography in 2003, which is the work he is most credited for today.'
(Wikipedia)