Visitation Scenes explores the lives of members of Andy Wiener’s family using photographic masks made from archive images from a family album. When worn, the masks create the effect of these people coming back to life in a ghostly, surreal way. Wiener travelled with the masks, to places where his relatives lived many years ago, and asked participants to wear the masks, to lend their identities to these people from the past. Scattered throughout the book is archive material of the places as they were, and other historical references.

These are images that remind us how common it is to be displaced, of the fragility of time and place, and of the transient nature of life. Andy Wiener’s work transcends the personal to reflect upon our society and experiences. As a pioneer in staged photography in the 1980s, Wiener has been influential in questioning the photograph as an evidence and a trace, revealing the performance of the everyday.

Hardback, 290mm x 248mm
72 pages, 46 photographs
ISBN: 978-1-911306-72-6