Photographer Mathias Braschler spent six months last year travelling across more than 40 states in a bid to find out what American citizens think of their country. From a marine in South Carolina to a Wal-Mart employee in Pennsylvania, from a Mississippi cotton picker to a cowboy in Wyoming, it is a visually stunning social document that provides a rare insight into the many faces of modern-day US. Interviews by Monika Fischer -''What do I expect from the future? To retire rich' - Pat Bertha, Wal-Mart employee, Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Someone who will retire rich as a Wall Mart Greeter, or win the lottery, or marrying a billionaire, won't be told that their delusions are symptoms and that the root causes are laughing at them. The modern Willie Lomans would rather be told that their virtues will get them ahead, that they are not part of the underclass, that the ones trodden under foot deserve it. I don't believe the right wing think tanks and Fox News or Limbaugh and Coulter have "brainwashed" the lower middle classes, where it butts up against the dispossessed. I believe the propagandists have listened carefully to age old ideals and prejudices too and have played their message to evoke visceral emotions. "Down with The Estate Tax," cries our Greeter, for she too will someday be rich.
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