Ofer Wolberger : (Life with) Maggie

Maggie is a fictional character who seems transported from another time and place, one presumably set in the past.

Maggie 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.

She simultaneously blends in with the photographic surroundings in which she is held captive, yet her mysterious features and outdated style cause her to stand out. The displacement of time and place within the context of tourism characterizes Maggie as an outsider. In one sense, Maggie's will to travel is an attempt to connect with other people in the world. The photographs reveal the world in both its otherness and it's ordinariness, while at the same time reflecting on the strange habits of all tourists and their pervasiveness around the world.

Ofer Wolberger (b. 1976) is a photographer who lives and works in New York City.

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. 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 atThe Bronx Museum of the Arts, which concluded with both a group exhibition as well as 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, GQ, Life and Big Magazine.