A Nice Round Number

Into the "what a great idea" category comes Michael Wolf and his photographic essay on a special group of apartment dwellers and their drastically confined lives.

Camera in hand, Wolf headed into a housing project in Hong Kong (the oldest of many public housing "big boxes") and photographed the residents in all their glory... 100 residents, 100 diverse, 10 by 10 foot.. uh, apartments.

The point not to be missed is that people have a real ability to adapt to their environment even given what you and I might consider to be very significant constraints.

Sometimes it's ethnic or educational constraints, sometimes monetary or other factors. But even when 100 square feet is all you have to work with, many people just do the best they can to make it work.

Browsing the pictures has forced me more than once to take a good look around my very own 2500 sq. feet and feel pretty damn fortunate. I'd be remiss not to point out that it feels pretty good to walk into another room yet still remain within my own personal living space.

Hmmm, wonder if that was Wolf's point?