Divided We Stand

Braschler/Fischer portrayed and interviewed Americans from all social classes and occupational groups and experienced the increasing division of US society in close-up. Urban and rural America hardly show any points of contact anymore. A rift increasingly separates white and black, rich and poor, right and left, Trump supporters and Biden supporters, and divides entire families. This divide marks the inner workings of the land of opportunity. "Divided We Stand," the current photo exhibition by Braschler/ Fischer at the Lechner Museum Ingolstadt, provides an up-close and authentic look at a divided nation. At the center of the exhibition are expressive Americans whom the photographer couple met on their four-month road trip. These people tell of the political and social changes - and the effects on their personal reality. The moving voices of those portrayed, which accompany the viewer, allow immediate access to the stories behind the intense images. For the sometimes larger-than-life, hyper-real portraits are authentic, raw and unfiltered - and the dominant setting size of the image detail is known in film language as "American" not only by chance.

The exhibition's multimedia presentation of photos, film, original audio recordings and texts in German and English provides an opportunity to understand the people of the USA today and the consequences of Trump's presidency to date. The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated book of the same name (Hartmann Books). Impact photographers Braschler/Fischer have won numerous awards for their portrait photography with depth, including the World Press Photo Award, the Hansel-Mieth Prize, and the European Publishing Award. Their work on climate and political issues is shown in museums and galleries worldwide and has been published in numerous international magazines and as books. Parallel to the photography exhibition on the upper floor of the Lechner Museum, works made of solid steel by Alf Lechner will be shown on the first floor, which have emerged from the splitting of the material. Steel cylinders weighing tons, revealing their innermost parts, split open by their own molecular force, stand in spatial relation to broken steel plates or wave-shaped plates cut apart by a steel saw, appearing on edge like a vertically running wave. In both presentations, the innermost is revealed through the experienced splitting, an individual vulnerability and particularity becomes tangible for the viewer, which otherwise remains hidden.