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Background information
"When Donald Trump was elected 45th President of the United States, the Swiss photographers Monika FISCHER & Mathias BRASCHLER lived in New York. The election results highlighted the deep divisions that permeate the United States of America and its society - a growing division that is causing progressive and conservative forces, urban and rural areas, the country's 'red' center and 'blue' coasts to drift further apart. In his first term in office, President Trump did not help to narrow this divide. With his racist, inflammatory, polemical media campaigns, the situation has continued to deteriorate, especially during the Covid19 pandemic and the May/June 2020 riots. Trump is not, however, the cause of this divide. His election can be interpreted as a consequence. Monika FISCHER & Mathias BRASCHLER decided to go on a road trip through the USA to meet people from all parts of the country and all sections of society.
In April 2019 they set out from New York City in a van converted into a small motor home with an integrated pop-up photo studio. In the following months, they drove 15,000 miles across a total of 40 states in the USA. They portrayed, interviewed and filmed Americans from all walks of life with very different opinions about their lives, politics and their country. Factory workers, farmers, vendors, service providers, investment bankers, politicians, students, teenagers, retirees, fathers and mothers... all ages, ethnicities, professions, and genders are represented in this photographic project that shows the fragmentation of the people and their nation facing a crucial election in 2020.
Content
The photo book 'Divided we stand' brings together 82 portraits of citizens of the United States and their honest opinions and views. Mathias BRASCHLER & Monika FISCHER were inspired by famous role models in this project, but have created their very own contemporary interpretation of the portrait theme". (publisher's text, © Hartmann Projects, 2020)