Photography and Movement Journalism in the American South
This vibrant catalogue showcases a decade’s work by Memphis-based Peruvian-American photographer Andrea Morales (b. 1984), whose camera sympatheticallydelves into community life and activism in the American South. It accompanies herfirst major exhibition at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, represents the firstscholarly publication on her work, and the first major museum exhibition dedicatedto movement journalism.The unofficial capital of the Mississippi Delta, Memphis, Tennessee, has long been aplace bubbling with activism and social movements. Roll Down Like Water – a nod to Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr.’s iconic last speech in the city in support of the 1968 SanitationWorkers’ Strike – shows Andrea Morales’s incredible ability to engage with her subjects,in Memphis and the surrounding region, through the lens. From intimate portraits andrecords of daily life to the documentation of social and environmental movements withlocal and national resonance, her photography builds a passionate and tender portrait ofthis unique part of the American South.The energy vibrating through Morales’s stills is the energy of the people themselves:the artist centres her practice on building long-term relationships with the communitiesshe photographs, and views this relationship as one of collaboration rather thandetached observation. Her approach is informed by ‘movement journalism’, whichrecognizes that journalism, like the camera, is not totally objective: behind laptops andlenses are people, institutions and systems that hold and wield power, for good or ill.By establishing a human connection between chronicler and people and rooting it inan ethical and rigorous framework, Morales’s ‘community-driven visual storytelling’reaches beyond historical injustice to capture the liveliness and joy of the communitiesshe photographs.For Memphis, and Morales, King’s words loom large. Echoing his descriptionof collective liberation as ‘an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a singlegarment of destiny’, Morales’s captivating images of the American South inmoments of turbulence, stillness, darkness and beauty chart new, sustainable pathsin photojournalism, while reflecting upon identity, community and the power ofstorytelling.
