Michael Wolf : Paris

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 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.

Text in English and French.

About the Author

Michael Wolf was born in Munich in 1954 and for most of his life has divided his time between Europe, America, and Asia. He currently lives and works in Hong Kong. Wolf obtained his diploma at the Folkwang Universitat (Essen University's art school), where he studied under Otto Steinert, and has since concentrated on the photography of urban landscapes. Among his most famous projects is his series of photos on Hong Kong's 'beehive' blocks. He has developed a particular interest in the crowded megalopolis typical of the contemporary world and the loss of identity it engenders.