Andy Wiener: Photography

Andy Wiener was born and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland, and now lives and works in the London area. He studied photography at the Royal College of Art between 1984 and 1986.

His work is held in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and the Scottish Arts Council.

Andy Wiener, alongside other Scottish photographers, in particular Calum Colvin and Ron O'Donnell were at the centre of a Scottish movement of photography referred to as "Constructed Narrative" in the late 1980s.

The investigation of the self, and the investigation of the unconscious, is a common thread that runs through his photographic work. His work has resonances with the art movements of surrealism and symbolism.

Solo Exhibitions

2012 Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow

1990 Stills Gallery, Edinburgh, show then toured UK

1988 Kneal & Russell Edinburgh

Selected Group Exhibitions

2013 Making it Up: Photographic Fictions. Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

2009 Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh (25 years of the Scottish National Photography Collection)

2003 Zelda Cheatle Gallery, London

2001 National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh

2000 Zelda Cheatle Gallery, London

1998, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh

1990 'Camera Art in Scotland Now' Houston Fotofest USA

1988 'Towards a Bigger Picture' Victoria & Albert Museum, London

1988 12 European Photographers, Houston Fotofest

Collections

Victoria and Albert Museum: A Rakes Progress

Deutsche Leasing: Sex Scenes

Scottish Arts Council: Sex Scene

Scottish National Portrait Gallery: Love Scenes

Monographs

Visitation Scenes 2020 Dewi Lewis Publishing, Stockport (72 pages)

Cautionary Tales 1990 Cornerhouse Publications, Manchester (56 pages)

Anthologies

Making It Up: Photographic Fictions. 2018 Marta Weiss. V&A Publishing (A Rakes Progress)

Studies in Photography 2009. Scottish Society for the History of Photography (Life Story Work Series no 4)

Light from the Dark Room 1995 National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, (A Rakes Progress no. 4)

New Scottish Photography, A Critical Review of 17 photographers, 1990, Scottish National Portrait Gallery (Love Scenes no. 5)

British Photography, Towards a Bigger Picture, Aperture, New York 1988 (Sex Scene No. 1)

A Companion Guide to Photography in the National Galleries of Scotland (Love Scene no. 6)

Journals

Source, The Photographic Review, Summer 2009 Issue 59 - Life Story Work (article about using photographs to describe the life story, illustrated with A Rake's Progress no 3. and from Life Story Work no. 3)

Time Out Magazine 1991 July 17 - (cover photograph Love Scenes)

Portfolio Magazine 1990 No 7 - (Living Scenes 1 - 4)

Alba Magazine Spring 1989 Barbie. Article regarding Love Scenes by Jim Lawson

Portfolio Magazine, Autumn 1988 (Sex Scenes no. 1 " no. 3)

Aperture: British Photography, Towards a Bigger Picture 1988 Winter Issue (Sex Scene No 1)

Creative Camera 1988 Issue 8 " 9 Double Issue ( four from Religious Scenes)

European Photography 1987, Young European Photographers (Sex Scenes)

Creative Camera 1987 Issue 8 " 9 Double Issue (Sex Scene no 1)

About the Photographic Masks

Wiener started using photographic masks in the mid 1980's.

He was one of the first photographers to use this technique in a large body of work.

His subjects wear photographs of other peoples faces and are then photographed. The masks are flat. A photograph of a face is pasted onto cardboard and then cut out around the face. It is supported infront of the face of the subject using glasses and polystyrene and selotape. The photographs are then taken "straight", so these images are not montages. One of Wiener's photographs shows the ideas of what is happening: see Implantation .

In the series A Rakes Progress (1986) Wiener used his own face to make the masks.

In the series Love Scenes (1988) he used masks made from the faces of dolls - Barbie Doll, Ken and He-Man.