The work of the German photographer, Michael Wolf, uncovers and documents a subject of vernacular culture – the making and shaping of personal spaces. Wolf grew up in the United States, Europe and Canada, studying at UC Berkeley and at the Folkwang School in Essen, Germany. He moved to Hong Kong in 1994 and worked for 8 years as contract photographer for Stern magazine, after which he withdrew from editorial photography in order to pursue his own projects. Wolf’s photographic work in Asia focuses on the city and its architectural structures, and follows on from his interest in people and human interaction.
Wolf’s work has been exhibited in numerous locations, including the Venice Bienniale for Architecture (2010); Aperture Gallery, New York; Museum Centre Vapriikki, Tampere; Museum for Work, Hamburg, and Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago. His work is held in permanent collections across the USA and Germany, including the Brooklyn Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; San Jose Museum of Art, California; the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Museum Folkwang, Essen and the German Museum for Architecture, Frankfurt. He has won first prize in the World Press Photo Award Competition on two occasions (2005 & 2010) and an honerable mention (2011,) and he has published nine photo books including Tokyo Compression Revisited (Peperoni Press/Asia One 2011,) Real Fake Art (Peperoni Press/Asia One 2011,) Tokyo Compression (Peperoni Press/Asia One 2010,) Hongkong Inside Outside (Asia One/Peperoni Press 2009,) The Transparent City (Aperture 2008) and Sitting in China (Steidl 2002).
Michael Wolf CV
Exhibitions
Architecture of Density