Michael wolf

Earlier on PforPHOTO I posted about a series by Michael Wolf in which he photographed windows and the small cities that exist behind them. A voyeuristic series called Transparent City. His new series, again photographs taken through windows, shows us the commuters of the Tokyo subway system. The many people (2.8 million a day) who rely on this rapid transit system are all packed neatly into small compartments.They all commute cozy together.

The photographs that Michael Wolf has taken gives us a look into the day-to-day lives of Japanese commuters. Damp windows. Emotionless faces. Portraits of people who are compressed together. Portraits of people who pause their lives from the moment they set foot on world’s busiest subway system. All on their way to do what they do. Everyday the same. Everyday together. The series is called Tokyo Compression.

Michael’s website: www.photomichaelwolf.com

German photographer Michael Wolf shows us people and windows in his series Transparent City. He came upon the idea to shoot close-ups of people in a window when he was flipped off by a person in another series he made. Inspired by Edward Hopper’s work, he finds it interesting to combine the voyeuristic nature plus the architectural details in this subject.

When I look at the pictures it gives a strange feeling of doing something wrong. Spying in on somebody who has absolutely no clue of your presence. But it is also an interesting look into office spaces of different floors in a building. Small worlds so close to each other, yet are so far away. The feeling I always get when I walk around in a major city, all so close, yet so far away.

Cozy Commuters

Windows