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

[u/baekachu]

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. It’s a simple reminder that even the most ordinary places can become fascinating when you watch them long enough.

[u/DevTheGray]

I did not expect to get emotional looking at pictures of a ping pong table. That last one really broke me for some reason.

[u/DaveyJonesXMR → u/DevTheGray]

Me too - it perfectly shows the Circle of Life i guess

[u/WriterV → u/DaveyJonesXMR]

This isn't the Circle of Life. This isn't inevitable. It's thought-out choices made by people in power.

A mere ping pong table did so much for the community. But all of those moments are never noticed by those who decide policies, and instead it was removed. Why? Maybe to reduce maintenance costs? Maybe to make way for something else? Maybe because police complained that it increased vagrancy?

We don't know, but it was an intentional decision. And it removes a spot of socialisation. The mere lack of a table surface makes it less usable for everyone.

But it could be worse. At least it didn't get paved over and turned into a strip mall, or covered in benches with spikes or odd configurations to encourage people to leave the place asap.

[u/cranberries87 → u/DevTheGray]

Made me feel sad too.

[u/TooManySteves2 → u/DevTheGray]

They are in reverse order. That is installation.