Ofer Wolberger/Courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery
Maggie nalikuje ljudskoj osobi, ali zapravo je tuđinac, najviše samoj sebi. Paralizirana željom za promjenom, srećom i "životom", sve na njoj i oko nje podsjeća je da je da je u svakom prizoru ona sama najmanje zanimljiv dio i da može postojati samo kao predmet nečije opsesije.
Trebamo zamrznuti nekoga, pretvoriti ga u nepokretan predmet, da bismo ga mogli opsesivno voljeti.
Nitko nikad ne voli osobu (to je ono što nas kod nje iritira, gnjavi, frustrira, što je uvijek previše "njezino"), nego čudesni predmet koji smo u njoj otkrili, življi i od nje same - fetiš.
oferwolberger.com/
Life with Maggie
(2007-Present)
Resembling a photographic travel diary or a personal photo album, Life with Maggie is the unique record of a character lost in time and place.
A Curious and Disarming Travel Journal
David Rosenberg
Ofer Wolberger’s series “Life With Maggie” is an abstract travel journal where the destinations are clear but everything else is slightly disarming.
The photographs are the type of imagery that might at first make you
jealous if it were to appear on your Facebook feed: photos of friends
who travel around the world posing in front of landmarks and places of
leisure.
You might also find yourself asking about this Maggie character whose unique fashion sense is eclipsed only by her unique face.
So is she from this era? Or even from this world? And is Wolberger
trying to say something about identity, specifically in an era where
virtual online identities are created through social media landscapes?
Ofer Wolberger/Courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery
Ofer Wolberger/Courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery
Ofer Wolberger/Courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery
“I don't really have an opinion about people's online identities, but
I do think in general that we tend to present multiple versions of
ourselves to the world at large and particularly online,” Wolberger
wrote via email. “Maggie's identity is fixed in a way because her face
is always the same, but for me her expression and personality are always
shifting due to the light, her gesture, what she's wearing, and where
she's situated.”
“Life With Maggie” is also a love story. “Maggie” is French and was
dating Wolberger, who was living in New York. The two would meet for two
weeks or a month at a time, traveling mostly around the United States,
France, and Germany. “In that way, it’s a very personal body of work
and one that reflects our experience of getting to know each other,”
Wolberger said.
They didn’t have a specific agenda apart from looking for tourist
destinations, and they chose them “by instinct and the journey at hand
at the time; one place led to another,” Wolberger said. “The ‘Life With
Maggie’ locations are cliché or postcard-like, in that Maggie gives me a
reason or a license to photograph places that I would otherwise avoid.”
Ofer Wolberger/Courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery
Ofer Wolberger/Courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery
Ofer Wolberger/Courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery
“When we were confronted with an enticing location, we just stopped
everything and went to work,” Wolberger said. “The trunk was always full
of clothing, most of it picked up along the journey. The whole
experience was pretty spontaneous, although once the shooting started,
things would slow down because of the large format 4X5 film camera I was
using and the need to direct the action.”
The idea of slowing down and working without an agenda is something
Wolberger takes very seriously. “My goal once I start a project is to
not think too much into every little thing. I try to work instinctually
as much as possible,” he said. “In that sense the final images never
match the initial goals, as I always hope to be surprised by what I
shoot. In this age of digital photography where very little is left to
chance, it was exciting to be shooting large-format film and to not know
what I had until the film was developed a few days or sometimes weeks
later.”
Wolberger said that although he at one point thought the project
would go on forever, it has been finished for a while now. He and Maggie
are now married and have gone on to work on another project.
Wolberger’s work can also be seen on his website horsesthink.com.
Ofer Wolberger/Courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery
Ofer Wolberger/Courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery
Ofer Wolberger/Courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery
Ofer Wolberger/Courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery
12 Books
(2009-2012)The original idea was to produce an artist book for every month of a single year. The publishing schedule failed miserably. The book form itself is rigorously questioned and reconfigured throughout this self-published series of books.
Life with Maggie
(2007-Present)Resembling a photographic travel diary or a personal photo album, Life with Maggie is the unique record of a character lost in time and place.
Photographs
(2005 - Present)Contemporary life as seen through a variety of landscapes and architectural structures around the world.
Imitation of Life
(2001-2006)Appearing both man-made and neglected these American landscapes and environments seem absurd as well as unexpectedly beautiful. I am attracted to and repelled by what I see.
Commercial Insides
(2000-2001)A ruin is more interesting than a freshly completed building. It shows the effect of time and experience.
-Walker Evans
Crumpled Paper
(1999)Appropriated from contemporary fashion magazines, each photograph is a single sheet of crumpled paper.
Anatomy of a Collage
(1998-Present)Hand-cut and pasted collages exploring mass media and the found image through the juxtaposition of photographs, text and color.
Collage Portraits
(1997-1998)A series of collage portraits made mostly from torn out pages of my mother's fashion magazines.
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