End Is Near, Here

Michael Dressel, born in East Berlin in 1958, is a wanderer between American and German culture. His regular journeys between his home towns on the American West Coast and Berlin have sensitized him to recognize the social changes of recent decades more clearly than most locals. His second book shows his view of American society on the eve of a historic election. The Americans have a choice between sanity and madness, between an orderly civiln state and increasing decay and chaos. From a Central European perspective, the choice seems clear, but to get a sense of the current state of mind of Americans, it helps to look at this book with its end-time title. Dressel's impressive images show a society on the edge of the abyss, marked by extreme nationalism, political polarization, religious fanaticism, gun mania coupled with paranoia and pervasive poverty and moral decay. His portraits are complemented by landscape photographs that speak their own gloomy language.