I came across a photo project by Michael Wolf, in which he photographs 100 of the residents of Hong Kong’s oldest public housing project in their apartments. Each apartment is 10 X 10, so it’s 100 people by 100 square feet.
Though I expected to be dismayed by what I saw, I actually found something deeply melancholy, poetic, and beautiful about these tiny spaces and the people that live in them. Looking at them, lingering on some, going back to others, I am struck by how each of these people have made their little space unique.
Some have TV’s; some do not. Some are a mess; some look quite clean. Some are nearly bare of possessions; some look like a 99 cent store. Some seem to have no organization at all; some seem to be rigorously maintained with a sense of order. Most have rice cookers. There are many delightful and surprising details if you take the time to look.
This is a profound window into another world. It feels a little like a very visceral understanding of attachment/non-attachment and interdependence. It also feels a little like I finally finishing digging that hole to China that I started when I was 8.
The Photos are Here