Wolfgang Tillmans was born in 1968 in Remscheid, Germany; he lives in London. He made several visits to Sabbathday Lake during the course of the project. During his stays he produced a series of photographs. The collaborative nature of the project made it all but impossible for him, as well as the other artists, to view the Shakers through the distorting filter of an often romanticized "dead" tradition, or to view their lives as articulations of the simple, clean aesthetic of Shaker architecture and furniture. His photographs resist this popular characterization of historicized and archaic Shakers. Instead, he presents the community and their surroundings in unusual and unexpected guises, especially in images depicting Shakers in their daily activities.