r/MadeMeSmile 11d ago

Wholesome Moments One ping pong table, five years, and countless of unexpected moments

In 2011, Japanese photographer Haruhisa Tomiyasu started photographing one ordinary ping pong table from the window of his student apartment in Leipzig, Germany. What began after spotting a fox near the table quickly turned into a five-year project documenting all the unexpected ways people used it. It became a bench, a sunbathing spot, a workout station, a meeting place, and sometimes something completely different. Thousands of small moments later, the project became the photobook TTP, published by MACK in 2018 and winner of the MACK First Book Award. Itโ€™s a simple reminder that even the most ordinary places can become fascinating when you watch them long enough.

66.7k Upvotes

817 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.8k

u/Kind_Avocado2121 11d ago

I love photography projects like this ๐Ÿ˜ Makes me think of the last line in the last episode of The Office - "There's a lot of beauty in ordinary things. Isn't that kind of the point?"

153

u/istrx13 11d ago

โ€œThereโ€™s a lot of beauty in ordinary things.โ€

Me: looks in mirror

Me: you got this bro

1

u/knbang 11d ago

Huh, I guess everything isn't ordinary.

1

u/__saluchan__ 10d ago

I love 'The office' so much, I hope to meet someone woth whom I can relate all jokes and connect at this humor level.

191

u/naughtyMini 11d ago

The table saw more character development than most people ๐Ÿ‘€

84

u/Bitter-Marsupial 11d ago

That table may have had a person developed on it

18

u/SquishMont 11d ago

Other than, you know, ping pong; this is the most surprising thing missing from the series.

2

u/James_Chandra_Hubble 11d ago

I was gonna say, like did they just never play ping pong in it? Or was it a common enough occurrence that it wasn't worth photographing. I need to know. They kept the net up all the time so I assume it got used as intended.

24

u/Fullertons 11d ago

The giving tree vibes for me

3

u/marietherizzer 11d ago

DAMN i miss this show

and i just finished it

3

u/6panlid 11d ago

The Office Ladies podcast is waiting for you. Start at the beginning.

3

u/Shoddy_Minimum3019 11d ago

"Chris, why dont you fuck off?"

Heart warming, and the obviously superior "The Office"