The Diverse Daily Life of a Ping Pong Table in Germany Photographed by Tomiyasu Hayahisa

In 2011 Tomiyasu Hayahisa started photographing a ping pong table located in a public athletic field across from his dorm in Leipzig, Germany for a series titled TTP. Tomiyasu had first noted the location after observing a white tailed fox perched near the legs of the table, and after waiting several days for the animal to return, he began to photograph the other life forms that congregated or paused near the outdoor game. Rather than spotting the fox, he captured families, partiers, and lonesome daydreamers using the area as a bench or bed.

“At the time I had been living in a student doom in Leipzig and it was possible to photograph from window the table tennis table, how people from different countries use it in their way,” Tomiyasu told. “And it could be the message of this work that the place could be everywhere.”

Hayahisa Tomiyasu was born in 1982 in Kanagawa Japan. He hold a BA in photography at the Tokyo Polytechnic University in Japan (BA) and at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig, in the class of prof. Peter Piller in Germany. After graduation he start teach at evening school at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig two years. He live and work in Leipzig.

If you enjoyed this series, you might also enjoy Yevgeniy Kotenko‘s On the Bench, a project which observed the daily life of a park bench in Ukraine for over a decade. TTP has been shortlisted for the 2018 MACK First Book Award. You can see more of Tomiyasu‘s work on his website.