Michael Wolf, Sergey Ponomarev, Saskia Groneberg, Benny Lam

Exhibition Review
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Institution
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The global photography prize Prix Pictet continues with its tour of the Finalist's Exhibition for the seventh cycle of the prize at Flowers Gallery, New York. This cycle's theme is Space; a theme which allows a wide range of creativities and a strong set of connections which are beyond Prix Pictet's theme of sustainability. Space is a broad theme embracing diverse topics such as cyberspace, overpopulation, hurricanes, wind-borne diseases, territorial disputes, air pollution not forgetting the fragility of the planet's great wilderness and people's tendency to fill space- from oceans to dry land with junk and many other things alongside. Twelve photographers are invited to participate in the exhibition show.
Michael Wolf is a known photographer, known for his large-format architectural photos of Chicago and his home in Hong Kong where he has lived for over fifteen years. His recent photography work has been created in one the big cities by the name Tokyo. Michael Wolf's Tokyo compression is aimed at the crazy nature of the Tokyo underground system (Francis 2013). To make shots often, Michael has selected a position which relentlessly gives his camera a picture after every minute.
Thousands and thousands of people enter this subsurface hell for two hours or more, constrained in between glasses and other people rolling to their workplaces and back home beneath the city. From Michael Wolf's photos, so many human faces are seen struggling to sustain this evident madness in their own way. From Michael's portraits, faces of Japanese commuters are seen enduring the inhuman daily crush of bodies in Tokyo subway cars. People end up suffocating and the experience is just unforgettable.
Tokyo Compression Revisited is actually a book by Michael Wolf and it was indeed a success. According to Michael, on his book with several photos of Japanese commuters who look frightened, in pain and worried; living in the city has become a disaster (Francis 2013). People are moving in and out of the city as many times as possible but looking at the photographs of Tokyo's notoriously crowded railway system, it's just a mess. Wolf has displayed the situations in which Tokyo salarymen and women obtain few moments of peace, sandwiched between the dripping...