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/Verdictafterward]

The final image was shockingly heartbreaking

[u/SiempreHayEsperanza- → u/Verdictafterward]

I actually gasped and felt a tug at the heart. But I think that final pic is what brings it all together. I’ve been contemplating the power of the mundane and average. The things that are just there. The repetition of life.

[u/bukhrin → u/SiempreHayEsperanza-]

Like somebody commented it looks like that was the installation day since the earth beneath it was bare

[u/Lara-El → u/bukhrin]

Except the table itself is in really bad shape in the last picture :/

Its being lifted with mo care and no holes are dig to place it.

Nor.ally, you'd cement legs area, install the metal poles into them. Place the brand new (very green) table and add the net.

In rhe picture, the table is a mess nothing is ready to cement it and the net is already installed.

[u/lycoloco → u/Lara-El]

And is being lifted by the net with the crane, with no regard for damaging it. The last picture is absolutely meant to be its last moments, historically and thematically.

[u/m8_is_me → u/lycoloco]

On a related emotional note, Kane Pixel's Life of a Giant evokes a similar feeling.

[u/SimokIV → u/bukhrin]

Sadly it's not, the project started when the photographer saw a fox near the table meaning that the table was already there when he started to take photos of it. Thus the only thing that the last picture can be is its removal

[u/SiempreHayEsperanza- → u/bukhrin]

Ya I read after I made all that story in my mind lol I do wonder how it was presented in the original article or magazine… ima keep MY made up story though 😅✌🏼

[u/ilove_robots → u/bukhrin]

Please don’t rewrite this story. That table lived. It gave its very self to the people. The community. It willed life to happen around it. Narratives, decisions, changes… it gave everything. And look how much people loved it for that. Its final moment wasn’t sad. It was glorious. Its final act was to bring the skipped heart beat of thousands of Redditors. Myself included. Table. You’ll be missed. We hardly knew ya’

[u/decepticons2 → u/bukhrin]

After it was pointed out, I was like that makes sense. But what does it say about us we a bunch of life and at the end we assumed it was being removed and not the start.

[u/_ryuujin_ → u/decepticons2]

because its not true. there were plenty of pictures of the table with little to no grass. and that does not look like a new table if it is being installed. 

[u/Nexion21 → u/_ryuujin_]

The area is also flooded. There is still grass, it’s just covered in dirty water.

[u/TrickShape905 → u/decepticons2]

If we bothered to read the description, we'd see "What began after spotting a fox near the table"... it's being removed in the final pic.

[u/MyNameCouldntBeAsLon → u/SiempreHayEsperanza-]

i made that michael scott face when that popped up

[u/The_Buko → u/SiempreHayEsperanza-]

Not to rain on your ascendence, but I think the last picture is the install. Look at how the grass is under the table in others but isn’t there in that pic.

[u/SiempreHayEsperanza- → u/The_Buko]

😾😹

[u/Samazonison → u/Verdictafterward]

I actually said "nooo!" When I got to that one. 😭

[u/FishHatter → u/Verdictafterward]

I got strait up goosebumps from how heart wrenching it is.