American Night features portraits of “real” women on the backdrop of expansive, dark and disturbing sets, referencing blockbuster film posters. The term “American Night” refers to a cinematic technique which enables the shooting of nighttime scenes during the day. In this series by Katharina Bosse, created in Miami during the Trump presidency, the “American Night” additionally represents the dark side of the American Dream, which despite record-breaking instances of xenophobic attitudes and policies, continued to draw thousands of immigrants to the US in search of a better life.

Bosse built an improvised studio in Miami, where 60 percent of the population are immigrants, and published an open call inviting actors of any gender, age or ethnicity. She photographed them in the clothes they came with, creating an additional layer of diversity. Bosse later digitally planted her subjects in environments constructed from dozens of images taken in different places around the city and at different times of the day and night. The ability to combine different times, vantage points and light sources in the same image enabled Bosse to create “cinematic portraits” in which the composition of time and space blends documentary and fiction, rendering the image believable to the viewer.

In collaboration with the Goethe Institute