Ofer Wolberger, Jimmy's Place, Natchez, MS, 2007, © Ofer Wolberger.
Ofer Wolberger, On the Beach, Pensicola, FL, 2007, © Ofer Wolberger courtesy Michael Hoppen Contemporary.
Ofer Wolberger, James Dean and Me, Lost Hills, CA, 2008, © Ofer Wolberger, courtesy Michael Hoppen Contemporary.
Ofer Wolberger, Mont Saint Michel, France, 2007, © Ofer Wolberger, courtesy Michael Hoppen Contemporary. |
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Michael Hoppen Contemporary
3 Jubilee Place
+44 (0)20 7352 3649
London
Ofer Wolberger
(Life with) Maggie
June 4-July 25, 2009
Within today’s predominantly visual culture, photography has been a powerful vehicle that contemporary artists have used to examine notions of identity and conflicts of self-perception. Ofer Wolberger explores these themes in his collaborative project (Life with) Maggie.
Maggie, a fictional character seemingly transported from another time and place, presumably in the past, has a life of her own as well as a unique style and personality. She travels around the contemporary 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. Throughout her journey, Maggie collects memorable snapshots for her archive, in a sense constructing an identity through the photographs.
At a time when many people are obsessed with constructing online identities through social networks like MySpace and Facebook, Maggie is out in the physical world attempting to understand how and where she fits in.
Maggie — always portrayed by Wolberger’s fiancée Billie Martineau — is a fictional character who seems transported from another time and place, a world seemingly set in the past, yet imbued with distinctly modern concerns. Maggie has a peculiar and compelling style. She travels around the contemporary world, but is attracted to sites with a slippery sense of time. Throughout her journey, Maggie collects memorable snapshots for her archive, in a sense constructing an identity through the photographs. At a time when so many people are obsessed with constructing online identities through social networks like MySpace and Facebook, Maggie is out in the physical world attempting to understand how and where she fits in. The photographs reflect on notions of the individual in society, as well as the strange culture of tourists and their pervasiveness in our everyday lives.
While Maggie in some ways manages to blend in with her photographic surroundings, her mysterious features and oddly outdated style draw our attention more acutely to her individuality. Maggie appears confident yet vulnerable as she determinedly confronts the camera, and as a consequence, her own projected image. In one sense, the displacement of time and place within the context of tourism characterizes Maggie as an outsider. Seen from another perspective, Maggie’s desire to travel is an attempt to connect with people and places around the world.
Wolberger met Martineau via an online social networking site, where for six months they became long distance friends (she in a small city in the Loire Valley, and he in NYC). They shared a common love of old films, indie music, photography, and painting and began an active dialogue not only via the internet but also by sending one another packages of cds, images and ephemera. When they finally met, the relationship became romantic and there began an incredibly productive and rewarding partnership. They now live and work together in New York City.
Ofer Wolberger (b. 1976) lives and works in New York City.
Wolberger has an MFA from School of Visual Arts in NYC and studied variously with Joel Sternfeld, Collier Schorr, Vera Lutter and William Christenberry.
He is the recipient of The Humble Arts Foundation’s Spring 2008 Grant for Emerging Photographers. His photographs have been exhibited around the world, most recently in Tim Barber’s Various Photographs as part of the New York Photo Festival and in Young Curators, New Ideas at Bond Street Gallery in Brooklyn, and has been chosen as one of four artists to take part in the 2009 Talents exhibition at the C/O gallery in Berlin — a prestigious experimental forum for young international contemporary photographers and critics. In 2007 his work was featured TH Inside’s Noise exhibition in both Milan and Berlin as well as in the accompanying exhibition catalogue. In 2003 he participated in the AIM program at The Bronx Museum of the Arts, which concluded with both a group exhibition as well as catalogue. He was also nominated for the BMW Prize at Paris Photo 2008.
His photographs have been featured in many international publications including The New York Times Magazine, Wired, GQ, Life, and Big Magazine. |
