From the packed commuter prison cars of Push Man to the blood-soaked opening of Suicide Circle, Japan’s rush hour traffic has long been depicted as hazardous to your mind and body. Now artist
Michael Wolf continues the proud, sadistic tradition with his Tokyo Compression series of photos. The German born photographer began his career with a focus on mega cities, gradually zooming in from landscapes to capture the lives crawling within. His lens shrinks train-goers down into tiny microbes rushing through an inorganic system of concrete arteries at 60 kilometers per hour.
Though the doors open to let in fresh air at each station, real decompression doesn’t occur until battered employees leave their offices and file into bars, cabarets, and karaoke boxes for intensive depressurization.
Be sure to check our
Michael Wolf's homepage for more candid portraits of life in cities, including some great snaps of the
homeless box men.
oh man that last one priceless
ReplyDeleteThe masked one's pose is straight out of a renaissance era religiously themed masterpiece.
ReplyDeleteAfter visiting the photographer's site I found his architecture of density series to be especially mesmerizing.
The suffocating maze of patterned dull concrete bears eerie resemblance to various dystopic favourites of mine.