Island People. Island People

Two islands on both sides of the Atlantic - Pellworm in North Friesland and Harkers Island in North Carolina - only came together through him. Between 1978 and 1984, he created a work that could not be more topical. A bridge. A journey. A mirror across the Atlantic. Two impressively comparable island communities.

Ulrich Mack (1934-2024) was one of the most important German photographers of the post-war period and winner of the World Press Photo Award. MACK. Four letters and a dot. We experience visual communication characterized by precision work, combined with a clear, humanistic visual language and a deep attention to the people he portrayed.

Mack's photographs of the islanders on Pellworm and the island people of Harkers Island are the result of careful, long-term photographic observation. In the concentrated encounter with the individual people, something universal becomes visible at the same time - a silent image of human solidarity across geographical and cultural borders. It is precisely this that makes the exhibition particularly relevant today and gives it a broad intercultural horizon.

The "Island People" from Harkers Island and the "Island People" from Pellworm will be connected live to the opening of the exhibition at the Carl Schurz House in Freiburg on May 20, 2026 at 7 pm. Among them will be contemporary witnesses who are themselves part of the photographic series.

In Freiburg, the images will symbolically cross a transatlantic bridge before finally returning to the people they depict. Over 30 years ago, MACK. formulated his wish as follows: "Where these photographs were taken, that's where they should stay." And so the exhibition, which has traveled the world, will finally return home after its visit to the German-American bridge. To Pellworm and to Harkers Island.

Julian Mack, the photographer's son, will be present at the vernissage. A bilingual introduction will be given by Lydia Sieweke from Pellworm and Friederike Schulte, who will be following the photographs this summer and moving to Pellworm.

Watch the livestream of the vernissage to Pellworm and Harkers Island, NC on May 20 here.

The exhibition will be on display until August 1, 2026.