Photographer captures stunning series of sunrises over Hong Kong outlying island
After relocating to Cheung Chau, early riser Michael Wolf began documenting day break, purely ‘out of joy’
“After 13 years photographing life in cities, I needed a change,” says Wolf, who spent eight years working in Hong Kong for German magazine Stern. “I was living in a factory building in Chai Wan and was tired of the forklifts rattling through the hallways at 6am. I didn’t want to sleep in my studio any longer, so I rented a place on Cheung Chau. It’s a beautiful flat by the ocean, overlooking Lamma, with Hong Kong Island in the distance.”
An early riser – he wakes up at 5.30am – Wolf, accompanied by a pot of tea, found himself on the rooftop of his new flat each morning, where he spent a couple of hours meditating and watching the sunrise. This daily ritual would eventually provide inspiration for his latest creative endeavour.
“I’m a compulsive photographer so, of course, I started photographing the sunrises,” says Wolf, adding that after 1½ years, he had accumulated 155 sunny images. “But I never intended to make a project out of it – it was purely done out of joy.”
It was only when he plastered the collection on his studio wall that Wolf saw the potential for a book, Cheung Chau Sunrises, and an exhibition.