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1 / 5 Following the announcement that a St. Louis County grand jury has decided to not indict Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson police officer, with the killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed eighteen-year-old African-American teenager, rioters set fire to numerous businesses throughout the city of Ferguson, Missouri. Ferguson, Missouri, United States. Tuesday, November 25, 2014. © Philip Montgomery.
2 / 5 Valerie Hopkins, Nija Chatman, Lana Chatman, Shirley Chatman, Jessica Chatman, and Lashanda Chatman (right to left) look out their front door as a police car passes by their F erguson, Missouri home the day after riots broke out throughout the St. Louis area following the announcement that a St. Louis County grand jury has decided to not indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson with the killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American teenager. Ferguson, Missouri, United States. Tuesday, November 25th, 2014. © Philip Montgomery.
3 / 5 Ferguson, Missouri, United States, August, 19th 2014. © Philip Montgomery.
4 / 5 During the visit to the exhibition Flash Points by Philip Montgomery. © Silvia Brambilla/Festival della Fotografia Etica.
5 / 5 Philip Montgomery during the guided visit to his exhibit Flash Points. © Silvia Brambilla/Festival della Fotografia Etica.On the verge of the abyss
Some stories seem to repeat themselves over and over again. And there are distances that seem unreachable, no matter how much we try to fill the gap. Words such as racism and racial discrimination seemed to be taboo until twenty years ago. They were unpronounceable and considered uncivil because nobody wanted to be called racist anymore. In fact, centuries of oppression continue to weigh on the word. But then the world changed, the fear of diversity got the better of us and we realised we are vulnerable. Like me, people born in the 80s have suddenly opened their eyes and have seen, it was terrible awakening. They have seen how issues apparently buried in the past have emerged on the surface again without any improvement. They have seen how the rejection of the word racist only created hypocrisy – hidden in the folds of only apparently harmless terminologies and periphrasis – and blindness towards unresolved problems. We have lowered our watch, we believed that what happened in the past would have been enough not commit the same mistakes. But it was not like that, not at all. It is a terrible awakening of which most of the people are not aware yet.
The merit of Philip Montgomery’s exhibition, Flash Points, is that it allows us to see from very close an extremely current issue in America that finds its foundations in the reality that we just described above. The exhibition proposes a series of images that document the recent happenings in Baltimore (Maryland), Ferguson (Missouri), and Newark (New Jersey) where the police forces fought against local Afro-American communities. These are very serious happenings, and it is in the abuses of the police, in the growing militarisation of the territories and in the explosive reaction of the population that we can see the expression (and the resurgence) of an old discomfort that has it roots in the partially unresolved racist discrimination. The American photojournalist did not limit himself to take pictures of the conflicts and the progression of the hostilities. He has followed the police forces in action as a shadow, studying the techniques of arrests and searches. He has captured the dismay and the anxiety of the Americans who see resurfacing ghosts from the past in the latest happenings. In few words, his pictures seem to report the approaching of a new dramatic break point between black and white people. Most of the pictures exhibited are from The Longest Night, a stunning work where the quality of the images and the use of methods of composition brings us back to the great reportages of the past. Montgomery is a young photojournalist, he has looked and studied a lot and one can tell from his work.
As far as I am concerned and despite it has been stigmatised, Flash Points is with no doubts one of the best exhibitions proposed by the Festival of the Ethical Photography. [ S. B. ]
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FLASH POINTS
by Philip Montgomery
Palazzo Modignani | 10-11 / 17-18 / 24-25 October 2015
admission fee: 10,00 € (valid for the visit to all other exhibitions)
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[ INTERNAL RESOURCES ]
◉ FFE2015 on FPmag
[ EXTERNAL RESOURCES ]
◎ A glance on the world
◎ Festival of Ethical Photography
◎ The Longest Night
◎ Philip Montgomery
published on 2015-10-30 in NEWS / EXHIBITIONS
FFE FFE2015 PhilipMontgomery StefaniaBiamontimore in EXHIBITIONS
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