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 as well as 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, the Sao Paulo Biennial for Architecture, Aperture Gallery, New York; Museum Centre Vapriikki, Tampere, Finland, Museum for Work in Hamburg, Germany, Kestner Museum, Hannover, Germany, Folkwang Museum, Germany, the Hong Kong Shenzhen Biennial, the 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, M+ Museum, Hong Kong, the German Museum for Architecture, Frankfurt, and the Heritage Museum, HK.
He has won first prize in the World Press Photo Award Competition on two occasions (2005 & 2010) and an honorable mention (2011). In 2010 and 2016, Wolf was shortlisted for the Prix Pictet photography prize.
He has published more than 32 photo books including More HK Informal Seating Arrangements (Peperoni Press, 2015,) HK Umbrella (Peperoni Press, 2015,) HK Flora (Peperoni Press, 2014,) HK Trilogy (Peperoni Press, 2013,) Small God Big City (Hong Kong University Press, 2013,) 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).