Ofer Wolberger

Life With Maggie

My work explores the strange, quirky and mysterious constructions of everyday life. This exploration is expanded in a recent project by a fictional character named Maggie who comes from another time and place, presumably the past. In the photographs, Maggie is played by a real person wearing an old paper mask from the 1930′s. The cinematic qualities of the project are highlighted by the fictional scenarios depicted in seemingly ordinary real life settings.

Maggie has a life of her own as well as a unique style and personality. Maggie travels around the modern world, but is attracted to sites with a slippery sense of time. Like the typical tourist, Maggie poses in front of objects and environments that suit her temperament, befriends the local people and visits iconic historical sites. Although she actually blends in with her photographic surroundings, her mysterious features and outdated style make her stand out like a sore thumb. This displacement of time and place within the context of tourism helps to portray Maggie as an outsider. In one sense, her will to travel is her attempt to connect with other people in the world. At the same time the photographs reflect on the strange habits of tourists and their pervasiveness

Ofer Wolberger is an artist born and based in New York. His photographs have been featured in many exhibitions around the world, most recently in a solo exhibition at Michael Hoppen Contemporary in London. Last year his work was featured in Tim Barber’s Various Photographs as part of the New York Photo Festival and in 2007 his work was featured in TH Inside’s Noise exhibition in both Milan and Berlin as well as in the accompanying exhibition catalogue.

Ofer received his MFA in Photography from The School of Visual Arts in 2001. His photographs have been featured in many international publications including The New York Times Magazine, Wired, Spin, GQ, Life and Big Magazine.