Michael Wolf

From photomichaelwolf.com
Lives in Hong Kong, born Munich, Germany. The focus of the german photographer michael wolf’s work is life in mega cities. many of his projects document the architecture and the vernacular culture of metropolises. wolf grew up in canada, europe and the united states, studying at uc berkeley and at the folkwang school with otto steinert in essen, germany. he moved to hong kong in 1994 where he worked for 8 years as contract photographer for stern magazine. since 2001, wolf has been focusing on his own projects, many of which have been published as books. Wolf’s work has been exhibited in numerous locations, including the venice bienniale for architecture, aperture gallery, new york; museum centre vapriikki, tampere, finland, museum for work in hamburg, germany, hong kong shenzhen biennial, museum of contemporary photography, chicago. his work is held in many permanent collections, including the metropolitan museum of art in new york, the brooklyn museum, the 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 honorable mention (2011.) in 2010, wolf was shortlisted for the prix pictet photography prize. He has published more than 13 photo books including bottrop ebel 1976 (peperoni press 2012) tokyo compression three (peperoni press/asia one 2012,) architecture of density (peperoni press/asia one 2012,) hong kong corner houses (hong kong university press, 2011) portraits (superlabo, japan,2011) tokyo compression revisited (peperoni press/asia one 2011,) real fake art (peperoni press/asia one 2011,) fy (peperoni press, 2010,) a series of unfortunate events. (peperoni press, 2010,) 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).

From Robert Koch Gallery
Michael Wolf’s work examines life in the layered urban landscape, addressing juxtapositions of public and private space, anonymity and individuality, history and modern development. In a diverse array of photographic projects, from street views appropriated from Google Earth, to portraits capturing the crush of the Tokyo Subway, and dizzying architectural landscapes, Wolf explores the density of city life. Wolf currently lives and works in Hong Kong and Paris. His photographs are in the permanent collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany; the Brooklyn Museum; the Cleveland Museum of Art; the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum, Kansas City; and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago among others, and have been exhibited at the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego (2011), Goethe Institute in Hong Kong (2010), Fotographie Museum, Amsterdam (2010), Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago (2008), Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2008), and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (2008), among others. Wolf was awarded First Place in the 2010 World Press Photo Award Contest in the Daily Life category, and was shortlisted for the 2010 Prix Pictet. Wolf's numerous monographs include Tokyo Compression Revisited (Peperoni Books, 2011), Real Fake Art (Peperoni Books, 2011), Tokyo Compression (Peperoni Books, 2010), Hong Kong: Inside/Outside (Peperoni Books, 2009), The Transparent City (Aperture and MoCP, 2008), Hong Kong: Front Door/Back Door, (Thames & Hudson, 2005), and Sitting in China (Steidl, 2002).

From World Press Photo
Michael Wolf was born in 1954 in Munich, Germany. He grew up in the United States, Europe and Canada, and studied at UC Berkeley and at the Folkwang School in Essen, Germany. In 1994, Wolf moved to Hong Kong and worked for eight years as a contract photographer for Stern magazine, until he left 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. He has published seven photobooks to date. Wolf's work has been exhibited extensively in galleries and art fairs throughout the world since 2005, and is held in permanent collections across the US and Germany. Wolf has won previously won a World Press Photo award, a first prize in Contemporary Issues stories in 2005.