Devouring Photobooks #21 — Tokyo Compression by Michael Wolf
Michael Wolf is one of the first photographer that I know of. Back in my university days, I had the pleasure of attending a talk presented by him. His unique observations of Hong Kong has opened my eyes on photography.
I learnt about the idea of photo projects, his reasons and means of doing them. It planted a seed in my head that has eventually lead me to look at other photographers’ work and building my own projects.
Wolf was a German born photographer. From what I can infer, quite a large portion of his work is focused on the capture of dense, metropolitan scenes. Some of his notable works include “Tokyo Compression”, “Architecture of Density”, “Real Fake Art” and so on.
On the book
Subway is not an uncommon subject in the photography world. Aside from Wolf, plenty of photographers have photographed / made photobooks about the place— Nobuyoshi Araki, Murakami Masakazu, Bruce Davidson, to name a few. And well, the person who is writing this article.
However, so far I think Wolf’s take on this topic is the most unique among all that I have seen. Usually titles of photobooks are not in the most literal sense, as we all know, photobooks are not manuals or research papers. But “Tokyo Compression”, is a very literal representation of the content of the book.
Pages of pages of faces being pressed against the subway cart’s windows. Quoting Wolf’s words, they are like sardines being jammed into a can. It is said that during rush hour, the subway staff on the platform have to push people inside the cart to be able to have the doors closed, just like closing an awfully full suitcase.
Images of people pressed up on the window reminds me a lot of plants kept inside a glass container. Different body parts pressed the glass like branches of plants. The water droplets formed by condensation only accentuates the whole plant metaphor.
In my opinion the most intriguing aspect Wolf has presented, is the variety of people’s facial expressions. The photographs are very direct and confrontational. In such a packed environment, Wolf did not give his subjects any chance to hide or move away. In this helpless situation, some gave off a distant “I don’t care”, dead-inside look, some other use different objects they have to shield their faces, and some just plainly closed their eyes as a means of silent protest.
A side note
As I am writing, I realised “Tokyo Compression” in someways are similar to Masato Seto’s “Silent Mode” where he captured different women’s candid expressions, lost in thought in the subway using a Konica Hexar AF, with its infamous silent mode turned on. The people unknowingly photographed later took it to the court and as a result, Konica took away the silent mode from the camera. Although it is said that the setting is instead hidden in the menus and you have do press the right buttons to activate it. A camera with hidden mode, how cool is that!
Thank you for reading.
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