Un beau livre, de belles photos, de belles idées…

In America, the chasm between rich and poor is growing, the clash between conservatives and liberals is strengthening, and evil and good seem more polarized than ever before. At the heart of this collection of diptychs is my desire to remind us that we are all equal, until our environment, circumstances or fate molded and weathered us into whom we have become.” ~ Mark Laita

Country Fair Livestock Show Contestant / Cajun Man

Ballerina / Boxer

Homeless Man / Real Estate Developer

Baptist Minister / Ku Klux Klan

Polygamist / Pimp

Gangster / Mafioso

Company President / Janitor

Mariachis / Elvis Impersonators

Fur Trapper / Woman with Dog

Baptist Churchgoer / White Supremacist

Amish Teenagers / Punk Teenagers

Bank Robber / Deputies

Astronaut / Alient Abductee

Completed over the course of eight years, Created Equal captures the poignant polarity of contemporary culture.

Created Equal: Parallel Portraits of Cultural Difference | Brain Pickings

Des photos étourdissante de Michael Wolf présentées dans le cadre du prix Pictet… (no photoshop)

One of the most densely populated metropolitan areas in the world, Hong Kong has an overall density of nearly 6,700 people per square kilometer. The majority of its citizens live in flats in high-rise buildings, whoses units can house as many as 10,000 people. In Architecture of Density, I investigates these enormous city blocks, finding a mesmerizing abstraction in the buildings’ facades. The structures in the series are photographed without reference to the context of sky or ground, and many buildings are seen in a state of repair or construction: their walls covered with a grid of scaffolding or the soft colored curtains that protect the streets below from falling debris. From a distance, such elements become a part of an intricate design. Upon closer inspection of each photograph, the anonymous public face of the city is full of rewarding detail – public space is private space, large swatches of color give way to smaller pieces of people’s lives. The trappings of the people are still visible here: their days inform the detail of these buildings. Bits of laundry and hanging plants pepper the tiny rectangles of windows- the only irregularities in this orderly design. The images of Architecture of Density give one an inkling of what our cities could look like if grown continues unchecked.

Prix Pictet – Shortlist 2010 – Michael Wolf – aod 39