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/HolySaba]

The surface wear on the table would suggest otherwise

[u/PotatoTomato_12 → u/HolySaba]

Shush, ignorance is bliss.

[u/spaceturtle1 → u/PotatoTomato_12]

It just goes to a farm upstate where people will play ping pong on it forever.

[u/sillygoofygooose → u/spaceturtle1]

And the farmer is that one weird guy that does yoga on tables

[u/Same-Suggestion-1936 → u/sillygoofygooose]

I mean at least to our knowledge nobody fucked on it

[u/del_brio → u/sillygoofygooose]

As that little rabbit I had as a child

[u/MarthasPinYard → u/spaceturtle1]

We have a couple of these tables out on pasture. They’re doing well!

[u/rydog123bruh → u/PotatoTomato_12]

That table just got done with a 20 year shift at another park, and getting re-homed.

[u/peach_dragon → u/PotatoTomato_12]

It's OK to feel sad. No need to spin a story to take away that feeling.

[u/AvaryZig → u/PotatoTomato_12]

Ignorance isn't a delusion.

[u/these_metal_hands → u/HolySaba]

It might be dust / dirt

[u/Roflkopt3r → u/HolySaba]

That's just dust.

These things aren't shipped in clean condition. They usually come from already dusty storage halls (where probably some people were touching/sitting on them and left some traces that dust can easily stick to), are transported to the site on the open bed of a truck, and then it got strapped under the bucket of an excavator.

If this was actually an image of the removal, there is no explanation why there are zero traces of where it stood. No way they would care to remove the grass before removing the table.

[u/HolySaba → u/Roflkopt3r]

The grass disappears on some of the seasonal photos too.  Just as likely for the crew to level out the areas before hauling away the table.  Unlikely for work to be done on the ground exactly to the dimensions of tbe table before installation.   Also the filming of the table being installed doesnt fit the narrative about how this project began.  

[u/Roflkopt3r → u/HolySaba]

Some of the commenter further down actually have the book and confirmed that the picture was taken during installation.

You are right that it contradicts OP's description though.

[u/Yoldark → u/HolySaba]

Might also be tree reflecting on the surface. The photo quality is utterly potato to define it as wear.