Maggie is a fictive character created by American photographer Ofer Wolberger, who pursues the question of identity in these staged photographs. In familiar-seeming pictures of real places, the mask worn by the protagonist seems false and strange, obscuring the true essence of the person behind it and preventing any direct contact. Although the mask is the constant that runs through the series, the change of clothing nevertheless reveals a fluid relationship between individual and environment. Wolberger shows, on the one hand, how strong the human need is to firmly situate one’s identity, and on the other, how difficult it is to answer the question of where one really belongs. Maggie’s travels are thus above all excursions in the search for one’s self.

Wolberger’s photographs, with their (de-)construction of individuality, are connected to the work of Cindy Sherman. Her adaptation of various identities alludes to the contingency of the concept of identity itself, particularly in a day and age when female and male, psychological and social identities are no longer determined by background or profession but are, to a large extent, freely chosen. Today, everyone can invent herself, can pick out her own mask and clothing, at least in principle.

Wolberger uses a 4x5 inch large-format camera, which allows him to capture a wealth of detail. His photographs are rooted in the American traditions of Street Photography and road movies, with photos at the roadside, along the travel route, of cultural and natural monuments, and even of absurd-seeming scenes. The intense color palette recalls the New Color Photography of the 1970s, when William Eggleston appropriated the medium of color photography, which had been neglected by artists until then. In awareness of this tradition of documentary photography, Wolberger performs only partial and very minimal image editing.