These Pictures Put The Tokyo Commute In Another Light

The Tokyo commute is renowned for being horrible. I guess that’s what happens when you have a city with millions of people in it where everyone uses the public transportation system. Imagery of this phenomenon usually speaks for itself, but this photographer did something unusual. He showed us the Tokyo commute in another light.

Michael Wolf has started documenting the Tokyo commute, taking pictures of people crushed into weird and uncomfortable poses. The pictures are more akin to a horror movie than people trying to get to work, these are in fact the latter. Cramped up into their subways like animals in a far too small zoo pen, these people express very little happiness or general well-being. They seem very centered on themselves, going inwards in some kind of trance-like state.