Tokyo Compression Research

 In this post, I would like to talk about Tokyo Compression, which is photograph by Michael Wolf. I will chose one photo from the series and discuss about it.

Tokyo Compression(2010)

Michael Wolf created a portraits pictures in Tokyo's subway. He focused on the feeling and facial expression  also about movement and mental of people in the train. The photo that I chose from his series is shown a women that she looking for something outside of the train. It can be seen that she looking for someone or she waiting for someone. She presented that she worry about something or it's can be something happen in the train that might made her feel uncomfortable to stay inside the train or she wants to go outside of the train. Her expression showed that it was a difficult time on the Tokyo subway. As well as other image in this series that show the difficult times of people using the subway.

“When I looked through the viewfinder I saw it,” - Michael Wolf

From the sentence above, it can be explained that there were three windows because he only had one train section in front of him and couldn't complete the entire train in that amount of time. He could immediately tell if the window had anything worthwhile or not, and if not, he would move on to the next one. He would aim for what he desired, the train would depart, and he would wait till the next one arrived. In other words, he had a pictures in his head of what kind of picture that he want to be. From studying this work I feel that he quite knows what he wants, how he wants the picture to look. And what does he want to convey to the audience? I think what he wanted to convey was quite clear and it made me see that in order to create a piece of work, one had to complete the picture in my head first.

Reference :

LensCulture, M.W.| (no date) Tokyo Compression - photographs by Michael Wolf, LensCulture. Available at: https://www.lensculture.com/articles/michael-wolf-tokyo-compression (Accessed: January 27, 2023). 

Tokyo compression (no date) Landscape Stories | Tokyo Compression. Available at: https://landscapestories.net/en/interviews/2011/michael-wolf-tokyo-compression (Accessed: January 28, 2023). 

Tom May (2017) Michael Wolf's Tokyo compression shows an undignified way to travel in Japan, Creative Boom. Available at: https://www.creativeboom.com/inspiration/michael-wolfs-tokyo-compression-shows-an-undignified-way-to-travel-in-japan/ (Accessed: January 28, 2023).

LensCulture, M.W.| (no date) Tokyo Compression - photographs by Michael Wolf, LensCulture. Available at: https://www.lensculture.com/articles/michael-wolf-tokyo-compression (Accessed: January 29, 2023).