›Hong Kong Storage‹ is the ninth volume from Michael Wolf’s Hong Kong Back Alley Encyclopedia, which might be completed now. But we never know.

A total of 1,000 pages of mops, gloves, carts, chairs, plants, clothespins, umbrellas - and now the way, people store all kind of stuff in a public environment. Sounds crazy, but Michael Wolf has much more to offer than just a few snapshots. Hong Kong’s Back Alleys since many years are his laboratory for the exploration of behaviors, creativity and inventiveness of the city dwellers that are reflected in the amazing variety of random arrangements.

Bags, brooms, pots, shoes, plants are held in the wall by pipes, chairs dangle on wire ropes or are stacked to Babylonian towers, vegetables hang together with gloves, umbrellas and tools on the leash, belongings are artfully laced on handcarts like Araki’s bondage models and some ensembles are so full with clothespins, bags, lines, wires, coat hangers that it would literally take more
than 1,000 words to describe them. But the pictures work WITHOUT WORDS.

With this series of books Michael Wolf erects a memorial to his beloved chosen hometown. I am happy to have the new one out but I hardly believe that Michael Wolf can really stop now.