Paris

Michael Wolf achieved fame when he won the 2005 World Press Photo with his China, Factory of the World project, and the 2010 World Press Photo with Tokyo Compression. The present book offers his personal take on the French capital. Singling out typical architectural features of the Parisian landscape he renders the seemingly banal immortal, as only he knows how. Roofs, chimneys, and lights provide the pictures with rhythm, with their colors, shapes, and above all their volumes. Wolf invites the reader to enter his highly distinctive visual world and let his gaze follow the snaking lines of walls and gutters, dwelling on unexpected details lovingly picked out. The photographer’s underlying desire is to encourage us to consider the environmental and architectural context that provides a framework for all these rigorously rectangular features. This dreamlike journey into a Paris viewed from the rooftops is underlined in the second part of the book. The shadows of trees decorate the façades of various buildings, creating a visual poetry and prompting an intimate dialogue where, in the absence of all human presence, nature and architecture blend into one another. Text in English and French.