(星島日報報道)女大學生不幸輕生，留下遺書，指香港太擁擠，「不宜居住」，字字辛酸。
《紐約時報》介紹美國攝影師Michael Wolf在香港拍的照片，但見密密麻麻、層層疊疊，貌如外星，美國人看了嚇得大叫，認為住在這樣的房子裏，人一定會發神經。
香港開埠之初，都說英國人看中維多利亞港水深港闊、背山環海，天然是一個商業要衝之地，但是，英國人也很懂得鑑賞，此地氣候溫暖宜人，火山、地震、海嘯的威脅一無；山林、海灘、漁港無所不包，全世界也難數得出幾個這樣的福地。英國人來殖民，都住在香港島上，依山修路，環境優美，連赤柱的英軍墳場，也清雅地令人流連，今天成為新人拍照的景點。
英國雜誌《Monocle》每年都評選「最適合生活」城市，條件包括市容潔淨、建築漂亮、環境優美、文藝蓬勃等，上榜的結果以北歐最多。世上的城市因人不同，有的適宜生活，有的只可用來賺錢。
因為生活，英文Life，不止是搵兩餐，還有滿足感官與心靈的需求，正如家居絕不止是「單位」，居住的環境也不應該只求有瓦遮頭，還要追求窗外的樹影，街頭的清風，在草地上曬太陽，樹下看野鴨戲水的一片和諧心境。
香港人的家居，四面都是牆，推不開窗，狹小幽閉，到處是噪音、光害，無一刻安寧，怎麼可能適宜居住？只是一個適合賺錢的地方，為了錢，只好犧牲其他，包括美和靈魂。
文：陶傑
國際聞名的德國攝影師 MICHAEL WOLF前後於2009年及2011年出版了兩套香港攝影集，而陶傑文中提起的是2009年那套其中一本Hong Kong Outside的內容。
在Hong Kong Outside相集裡，大師取景時刻意將天空括出鏡頭外，密密麻麻的格子充滿著整個畫面。看著看著，那份迫感真的令人窒息。公屋如是，私樓亦如是;舊的如是，新起的亦如是。
而另一本Hong Kong Inside是將100 x100的相片合輯成的。100 x100的產生是，當知道在1954年入伙香港第一個公共屋邨石硤尾邨將會被拆卸時，大師走訪了邨內100 位住戶，拍下他們在100平方呎的居所內的生活環境。個人覺得，這亦是一部紀錄了某部份香港人活過的歷史存檔之書。
http://www.photomichaelwolf.com/hong_kong_inside_outside/hong_kong_in_out_prsn.pdf
http://www.beijingshots.com/2012/05/hong-kongs-high-density-housing-cramped-living-conditions/
HONG KONG INSIDE OUTSIDE
MICHAEL WOLF
Two books in a slipcase
352 pages Numerous full color images
305x235mm Hardbound
Co-published by ASIA ONE BOOKS
September 2009 
For more than 14 years German photographer Michael Wolf has been living in Hong Kong. Focused on the specific visual elements he has depicted high density living in one of the world's most crowded cities like nobody has before. HONG KONG INSIDE OUTSIDE combines two major series of his work titled Architecture of Density and 100 x 100.
For Architecture of Density, Wolf fashioned a distinctive style of photography. He removes any sky or horizon line from the frame and flattens the space until it becomes a relentless abstraction of urban expansion, with no escape for the viewer's eye. Wolf photographs crumbling buildings in need of repair, brand new buildings under construction covered in bamboo scaffolding, as well as fully occupied residential complexes. Wolf's disorienting vantage point gives the viewer the feeling that the buildings extend indefinitely, which perhaps is the spatial experience of Hong Kong's inhabitants.
As a way to investigate the social ramifications of living in such dense conditions, with his series 100 x 100 Wolf juxtaposes the anonymity of the exterior residential complexes in Architecture of Density with interior portraits of 100 individuals and families surrounded by all their belongings living in public housing consisting of identical 100-square-foot apartments allocated to each family. He obtains the same vantage point for each picture forming a typology that allows the viewer to study how the individuals make the confined spaces their own.
2009年出書後大師接受訪問，他道出香港可愛及可取之處，亦道出了香港的問題所在及將會變成怎麼樣的境地。三年過去，香港正一一地引證了大師的這番言論，有很多點更值得我們那些話得事的去反思。
Photographer Michael Wolf
http://hk.asia-city.com/city-living/article/photographer-michael-wolf
German photographer Michael Wolf has made his fame and fortune photo-documenting the lives and street scenes of Hong Kong in exhibitions and books that have become wildly popular overseas. His most recent book, “Hong Kong Inside Outside,” is a collection of photographs capturing the density of Hong Kong’s architecture. He talks to Johannes Pong about his “lesser craft,” and his love for our fair city. .........Sep 24, 2009 
I was born in Munich, and grew up in America. I came to Hong Kong to photograph China for German magazines. Pretty soon, I felt that I had to do something in Hong Kong—here was this amazing city I’ve been living in, and I never did much with it.
In my album “100 x 100” I took pictures of a 100 rooms at the Shek Kip Mei public housing estate. All of my subjects had a standard 100 square foot room. I was curious as to how they filled these similar spaces. They were mostly elderly residents, not middle or upper class.
It’s great documentary of character and a piece of Hong Kong’s history. They tore down all those estates in 2007.
And the décor, it was authentic and personal–it’s not like photographing a rich tai tai’s flat—there’s no courage at all in hiring a good gay decorator and having him do it all for you.
Hong Kong is still culturally undeveloped—not like Berlin, Paris, New York, or even Beijing, which is way more diverse. Art galleries here are just outlets for interior designers.
Art is not number one on the list here. In Paris, the government spends a lot of money on art. There’s no corporate aim behind it, just public education.
The guys in charge of Hong Kong’s urban renewal don’t realize how vital the organically developed parts of Hong Kong are to the city. Places like the Graham Street market and Mong Kok.
They’re systematically destroying everything that’s unique and exciting about the city and substituting it with generic crap. It’s like replacing your wife with a robot.
If the government keeps this up, Hong Kong will become Singapore in 20 years. You couldn’t pay me to live in Singapore. It’s a total façade, utterly sterile. Even the hawkers are all fenced in.
Hong Kong will eventually degenerate into the shopping mall of China.
I love Hong Kong at night, with the steaming siu mai, and come January, everyone brings out the alfresco tables in the alleys for hotpot. It’s a beautiful thing.
I’ve lived in Hamburg, Paris, Toronto, rural America. And I’ve never found a city more captivating than Hong Kong. Nowhere else in the world has this architectural environment.
I love Hong Kong’s vernacular culture, the dense architecture that locals miss, the back alleys, the old lady pushing the carts.
I’ve never been in a more efficient city either. You can do 20 things in one day. In Paris, you do one thing in 20 days.
A culturally interesting city attracts more culturally interesting people, and then the city will naturally become more prosperous.
I believe I’m giving something back to the city, a part of its cultural heritage, documented.
Hong Kong is the city I’d like to die in.
2011年頭由Hong Kong University Press出版的Hong Kong corner houses《街頭街尾》，網上已有很多人介紹過。
「街角樓」是香港上世紀五六十年代的產物，由於街角地盤位處單邊，並沒有毗鄰建築物，所以它們的外形更富立體感和別具吸引力。特別有趣的是，由於單邊的 「街角樓」有更多的外牆，使樓上的一舉一動愈是顯露無遺。我們可從外牆晾曬中的衣裳、耀目的商業招牌和各色各樣的窗戶裝潢中猜度哪是住宅、哪是商戶。
http://www.photomichaelwolf.com/corner_houses/
第一張是自己很熟悉曾在這一帶活動過十數年的地方，最右邊的樓宇現已在拆卸中，從這裡延伸向海傍有多幢樓宇外牆亦已掛上宣示勝利的布條。
