Photographs by von Ute Behrend, Michael Dressel, Valentin Goppel, Jörg Rubbert und Josef Wolfgang Mayer
For many people in the United States, the American dream of freedom and a better life seems to be over. Trump's slogan "Make America Great Again", a promise for some, but for others just the lies and deceit of an autocrat, is dividing American society. So what remains today of this country that for so long shaped the symbols of the Western way of life?
Photographers Ute Behrend, Michael Dressel, Valentin Goppel, Jörg Rubbert and Josef Wolfgang Mayer, all tracing the footsteps of an America in turbulent times, recount this in their current works.
ARTIST TALKS / EVENTS
March 4, 6-9 pmOpening
Friday March 6, 6 pm
Lecture, book presentation and artist talk with photographer Ute Behrend
Ute Behrend is a German artist, publisher and lecturer. Her award-winning photographs and installations have been exhibited internationally and are represented in many public collections. In 2025 her latest monograph „Cowboys After Barbed Wire“, was published and won the 2026 Book Cover Award. Ute Behrend lives and works in Cologne. "The cowboy is an invention." With this thesis, artist Ute Behrend exposes the cowboy as a cultural construct – somewhere between myth, masquerade and media image – in her current long-term project (illustrated book and photographs).
Saturday March 14, 4 pm
Slide show and guided tour of the exhibition with photographer Josef Wolfgang Mayer
Josef Wolfgang Mayer is a German photographer who is best known for his documentary series. He studied at the Bavarian School of Photography and subsequently worked as a cameraman for film and television. His works are regularly exhibited in galleries and at trade fairs. Josef Wolfgang Mayer lives and works in Berlin. ‘America – the land of road trips, pop culture and my photographic role models for modern colour photography. This country is changing, and what will become of it is more than uncertain.’ (Josef Wolfgang Mayer)
Friday, March 27, 6 pm
Artist talk and book presentation with photographer Jörg Rubbert
Jörg Rubbert is a well-known photographer and author who is best known for his analogue black-and-white and colour photography in a humanistic style and whose work has been exhibited internationally. Following various monographs, his new photo book "Galveston/TX and the Gulf Coast" has just been published by Kettler-Verlag. In October 2024, Jörg Rubbert travelled along the Rio Grande River in the Texan-Mexican border region. He portrayed people living there and documented the current situation directly at the border fence. Jörg Rubbert lives and works in Berlin.
Friday, April 10, 6 pm
Artist talk with photographer Michael Dressel
"The End is Near" – American society on the brink? Michael Dressel provides insight into the current situation in the USA and his work (photo books and photographs). Michael Dressel, born in East Berlin, studied stage design at the Berlin-Weißensee Academy of Art. An attempt to escape landed him in a GDR prison. In 1985, he was able to leave for West Berlin. Later, he moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a sound editor for Hollywood film productions. His photographs, presented internationally in numerous exhibitions and published in the highly successful photo books Lost Angeles and The End is Near, depict an American society characterised by nationalism and political polarisation, gun violence, poverty and moral decay. Michael Dressel lives in Berlin and Los Angeles.
Friday, April 17, 6 pm
Artist talk with photographer Valentin Goppel
Valentin Goppel, born in Regensburg in 2000, is a rising star in German documentary photography. He became known primarily for his intimate portraits of the "Corona Generation" and received the prestigious Leica Oskar Barnack Award in 2022 for his series "Zwischen den Jahren" (Between the Years).
Since 2023, he has been working on his new long-term project "False Prophet Radio" about the western United States, for which he received the highly endowed Alexander Tutsek Photography Grant in December 2025. Valentin Goppel lives in Hanover.
"I watch CNN and Fox News at the same time. The grey map on the television is now coloured red... In a few hours, there will be images of crying people in blue shirts and cheering people in red hats. Somewhere in America, the sun is setting. I turn off the television and go to bed." (Valentin Goppel, 2024)
Friday, April 24, 5pm
The USA in transition – what images tell the story? Artist talk with photographer Josef Wolfgang Mayer, followed by closing event
