- She is a documentary photographer and journalist born in Peru and raised in Miami.

Her compelling and intimate images of community life, activism, and protest in the American South have appeared in "The New York Times", "The Wall Street Journal", and other national publications, and she lives right here in Memphis, where she works as a visuals editor at MLK50: Justice Through Journalism.

I'm Brittany Brown, and this is A Conversation With Andrea Morales.

Andrea, I'm so excited to be here with you today.

- I'm so happy to be here with you, friend.

- How are you doing?

- I'm doing okay, It's been quite the year.

- It has been a big year.

As we sit here right now, there are an entire display of your amazing images sitting in Memphis's very own Brooks Museum.

How does that feel first, like, let's just start there.

- Yeah, it is kind of surreal.

It's the work that I've made over the last 10 years here in Memphis is now on display at the Brooks, and there are 65 photographs, and that is just way more real estate than I could have ever like dreamed to know what to do with.

But the work that it took to make the photos, then care for them through selection, carry them into the space, it all was very different than the ways that I've interacted with the photographs in the past.

So it's exciting, it's weird.

I've had the blessing to have visitors come and see from out of town and get to know Memphis through these images, and I'm just lingering behind them, 'cause I'm like, "I just want you to understand it."

Instead of me being like, "This is what I did."

And yeah, in that lingering, when they're looking at the pictures on the wall and I'm just behind like not sure what to do.

There's also these moments where I get to just look at the space.

And that.

Yeah.

I know you and I work in digital journalism, have been working in digital journalism for a long time.

And so usually the space that we take up is about this big in our hand, and then maybe half a minute if we're lucky in someone's consciousness.

So asking people to literally step in to a place with all the photographs and spend time with them.

Yeah, I have so much gratitude for the ability to do that.

- Yeah, like you said, because so much of our media consumption today is very fleeting, it's very you look at it for one second and it's on to the next.

But I think what your images really show us, like you said, and kind of bringing us to what this moment means for you.

Your images are showing us Memphis, and Memphis has many layers, and I think this is a really opportune moment for you and where you are in your career and your image-making after a decade of being here in Memphis.

And we sort of are kind of in this moment where they come to life at the Brooks.

Tell me a little bit about the process of getting to this moment.

Because right now we the final product, and it can seem very simple or quick, like it just got there, but there's a lot of blood, sweat, tears, travel,time, money, time away from family, friends, and home.

And there's a lot that goes into that process.

So if you could kind of, I guess, describe at least the timeframe of the images that are on display in the gallery right now.

Take us a little bit through that process and I guess some of those key moments that stick out for you from the image-making process to the image selection process to actually kind of getting to preview the gallery before it opened to the public.

- Yeah, I mean, so the work also just came about because I've been working as a photojournalist here in Memphis for a long time.

And so that's looked like a number of different things.

I've worked as a server and then run "New York Times" assignments in town.

And then there's also been times where I'm just photographing a baptism or just a community event with no expectation of publishing or even a great photograph.

Just being with people to help inform what I'm processing through a lens, a camera frame.

The rectangle that is my viewfinder is like this place where I can just sort of really like focus in for me as a processing tool for the world.

And so part of moving to Memphis and getting to know Memphis was photographing Memphis.

And I left a job as on staff at a newspaper in New Hampshire before I came down here, and was grieving the job I had, 'cause my dream had always been to be like a community everyday photographer.

You know, just be there for someone's kindergarten graduation, for their high school graduation.

I don't know, just following that timeline to me is deeply satisfying, like a beautiful way to live.

And so I was really grieving and mourning the fact that I had left that job, that I'd lost the ability to just be constantly obligated to attend every parade, every pancake breakfast.

I miss that kind of energy.

And so I came here kind of trying to recreate that in a very selfish way initially, but then Memphis being what it is, Memphis being like the generous, beautiful, warm place that it is became a home for me that then I just kinda lost myself in making photographs here.

It was how I met people, it was how I connected with people, it's what I had to, I mean, I was very broke for a lot of this, so it was what I had to offer to people who had given parts of themselves to me, because I could give back to them through showing them that this is how I see you and this is what I think is really cool and beautiful and magical about you.

So like that's what like is happening I think in the rectangle.

And then that's what happens to the rectangle in Memphis.

In the midst of all that, I'm also having to pay my bills.

So picking up random assignments and because I've been at community events and let me look at assignments where you kind of come in particularly as a photographer, you get tapped in maybe after reporting's been done, or like you're working on a story that's a follow up to a deeper story.

So you kind of, you don't get to choose where you come in sometimes as a photographer.

But because I was informed in the practice, I'd sort of jerry rigged for myself here of being present, being just there, being there to serve as someone who can both document, remember, and see.

That helped me be more critical and think more critically when I was on assignment and catch different moments that because of the experiences I've been able to share with folks here, like the articulation of things sometimes that are like systems, like systems of justice.

- Things that are harder to see.

- I feel like I can understand a little bit better like how we signal what is happening because of the time spent with people.

- Yeah, I think that's really a testament to the process that you utilize when you're kind of in the field, whether it's conscious or unconscious, just by nature of who you are and how you do the work.

You said kind of several times just like the practice of just showing up, showing up over and over again, and not just for like, "oh, I'm on assignment," or, "I want to get this published here, there, and everywhere," but it's kind of an offering that you have to give to people that you're in community with.

I think that is really, really shown through the images that we see of your work all the time because you really capture, and I don't like to use the word capture, 'cause know you're very intentional with the language that you use around your image-making process, but the images that we're able to sort of witness, right?

Talk to us a little bit about the bearing witness part of what it is that you do when you're behind the camera.

- Yeah, I think that, yeah, so I think that bearing witness is a great way to describe just the primary function of what I've set out to do, what I've tried to establish as my practice, what I'm hoping to model for others also here to encourage them to use their power to witness to be part of the account of this world that we're living in.

I think that we all obviously are positioned differently in this world and that informs our perspectives and how we process things, how things affect us.

And with that in mind, I think that the work that I'm trying to do is not necessarily trying to be comprehensive, definitive; simply bearing witness means to me to make sure that you are lending your perspective to a bigger story, because if you don't, and it's kind of in some, we're into this now, so I'm gonna talk big, but I think it's one of our biggest responsibilities to one another is to bear witness.

Right, because there's that idea that narratives and histories are decided and created by people who have power.

And there's that Zora Neale Hurston quote about like, if you don't tell your own story that, do you know what I'm talking about?

I misquote it constantly.

- Is it the, if you are silent about your, "If you're silent about your pain, they'll kill you and say you enjoyed it."

That one?

Yeah.

- That one, that one.

Yeah, that to me like is a big like a really informing notion, you know what I mean?

Because people will be like, "Oh, look at all of these people.

Look at all these folks not suffering."

And that's what will get passed on to the future.

And so I just wanna make sure that with the processing skills I have, the resources I have, my camera, photographs I can distribute, that I can lend to bearing witness in a tradition of people who have bore witness in Memphis against many odds.

- Yeah, and Memphis is a really powerful place to bear witness, right?

I mean, there's so much history.

I know often we harken back to the assassination of Dr. King, but even before then, even in the midst of that moment, there were other things to bear witness to.

But kind of let's turn it around and let's turn that kind of concept of bearing witness around a little bit.

How has it been for you to bear witness of other people bearing witness in this very in-real-life space of this gallery and also the intentionality that is sort of being applied in the work that you're doing with the staff at the Brooks Museum about ensuring just that people are coming into this gallery, not just donors or the typical museum-goer, but folks that you over time have documented.

I know you have worked really intentionally with the staff there to be sure that the community is actually coming into this space to actually partake in the bearing witness process.

How has that experience been for you?

- Yeah, yeah, all praise for the Brooks staff for sure.

The curational staff has been extremely supportive and thoughtful about connecting the work back to the community in tangible ways.

So people who are in the images have participated in different parts of the show's run, the opening reception was, I will start crying thinking about it.

It was so amazing.

- It was.

- Like there was people who were in the images celebrating with us.

These moments had been consecrated in a very fancy marble-covered building.

So that to me, that bearing witness part is it's just always happening.

But then to be able to hoist all that stuff up on these walls and all the prestige of a museum space I feel offers reverence to parts of our community that I just deeply, deeply love.

And so seeing people see themselves in parts of the, see parts of home, see themselves in the images, yeah, that's my favorite feedback.

People feel like very, and particularly Memphians have shared with me, that they thought like they really saw a Memphis that they grew up with, which is great because, to me, also, those photos represent 10 years of my life.

So I definitely grew up in that period.

And so seeing people like identify with photographs in this very intimate way has been awesome, because, and photography has done a lot of harm.

People's images are captured and then used in ways that are problematic and hurtful.

When this process started for the museum show, I was talking to Rosamund Garrett, who's the curator for the show, and we were talking about our first museum experiences.

And I grew up in Miami and went to, I think it was called something different at the time, but it was the Miami Art Museum.

And we went and saw in high school, I got taken on a school trip to see photographs made by Annie Leibovitz.

And they were like this portraiture that was huge, big, it looked just like the walls of a church that I'd gone to growing up.

It was just like, the reverence was so big, and I was just like, I can't believe you can put an everyday person up on display like this and make them feel special, welcome people to find themselves in these pictures.

It was a really moving experience, and that is what I was hoping to sort of bring to people here in Memphis.

That they were seeing parts of themselves being celebrated and held along with the difficult struggle that we've all been through together in the last decade and honored for the many things that it is.

The strength that it represents, the yeah, just flat out beauty and wonder of being alive in a really hard time.

Yeah, that's what I was kind of hoping for.

- I see that, I feel that sort of just like hearing that story of what kind of stands out from you in your childhood and how that kind of through line has stuck with you into you being able to now do that sort of work in your own way.

Walking through the gallery, it feels like a gift to Memphis, to the people who call this place home and to the people who are represented in the images.

And in a way, you're really memorializing and honoring them in the most dignified way possible in a city where things get complicated really fast.

- Dignity feels scarce for some dang reason.

You know what I mean?

Dignity isn't something that we get to offer each other.

It's something that we inherently have and should be reactant to.

So, yeah, and so I'm playing with that for sure.

That's very much rooted, whether it's successful and it'll stand the test of time, I don't know.

But right now, to me, this feels a good way to reach people and be like, "Yo, you did that.

You did that."

- And that's a good practice.

To just focus on the right now.

Because I think time works out in a way where the things that stick stick, and I'm excited to see just what time will kind of unfold us right now.

Speaking of time, we like to yap but I wanna make sure that I get about two more questions in before we run out of time here.

I'm from the South.

I'm from Mississippi.

Memphis is home for me now.

You're also from the South, you're from a bigger part of the South though.

You're from the Global South, you're from Miami, you've worked in the Northeast, you've worked in the Midwest.

Why though, has the South been a place where you've really rooted and planted yourself and your work?

Why Memphis?

Why the South?

- Yeah, I ended up here following love.

I followed a relationship here to Memphis, and so I came in very optimistic, but I think I was very, just being an immigrant, like a sense of home has always been kind of an elusive concept.

I have like where my parents stayed, but whether or not that's home feels ambiguous.

Memphis felt almost immediately like home.

People just love you for who you are here.

And 'cause we all know what's up against us, what the odds are stacked against us.

People know just sort of how hard life can be.

They're aware and they still find love within that.

And I think this is my idea of what Southern hospitality looks and feels like.

It's like people who've been through a lot of hard stuff, but still find a way to make you feel welcome and seen.

And so like that totally radicalized the way.

I mean, and I moved here in 2014 also during like the beginning, in the wake of Michael Brown's murder by Darren Wilson in Ferguson, and it was just to be cared for like the way that Memphis cared for me when I first arrived, despite how hard and ugly stuff was, I feel showed me that things could be different including the way I had been even making photography up until this point.

So like I mentioned earlier, this place really raised me in a lot of ways.

Like I've made a lot of mistakes and survived, thankfully.

I've made a a lot of beautiful relationships and I'm better for them.

I've lost a lot of relationships and that was really hard.

And through it, Memphis is kind of always there, and it's like definitely the people, definitely the place, definitely this aura of history and reality of the problems that we haven't resolved across history, all that stuff is just very present, and Memphis is just like a deeply present place.

And I think starting here and then getting to know different parts of the South from here, I don't know, it helped, I can't say that I know Mississippi well as you do, even though I did spend a lot of time there.

But at the same time, like I feel like coming from Memphis helped me love Mississippi, coming from Memphis helped me love parts of Alabama.

No shade to Alabama, but I'm not gonna go say I love Alabama when Kay Ivey's right there.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

Leave the Alabamans alone.

- I love you, love you, 'Bama, Birmingham, Montgomery.

- But what do you hope and imagine and dream for yourself, for your work, and for Memphis?

What do you see on the horizon for yourself for your work and for this city that has given you a place to call home?

- I feel very, very, very blessed to be where I am right now.

Staying in photojournalism is not easy, especially in the media landscape that we are both in.

And thinking about who are gonna be the storytellers that can do something like I, or hopefully even better than what I've done.

Who are they gonna be?

And how do we make sure that this tradition of bearing witness and still finding ways to connect through that, who's gonna carry that?

And so I'm really interested in trying to, I'm hoping that there was a school trip to the Brooks and that a school child, maybe an immigrant, maybe someone who is definitely not traditionally represented in working media, to see that and be like, "I could do that.

"That's crazy, I noticed this thing "about the Southern Heritage Parade the same way she did.

I could maybe do this."

And so like they could, through our work at MLK50, I'm really hoping to also just cultivate more people who feel free enough to process this very hard world through something that I think is very beautiful, like photography, something that can, or visual storytelling.

It doesn't even have to be photography, but just the way that we can see each other can be the thing that helps us get free.

- And what you're talking about truly is a legacy, like you're hoping to build a legacy of people, of young people specifically, who feel like they can kind of follow in your footsteps and other folks' footsteps that you're also following in to document, to process, to give gratitude, to ponder on just this world, and Memphis is really a microcosm of the world that we're living in.

If you had just one piece of advice or a call to action for the youth, for the kids, for the babies, what would that be?

Just about the importance of documenting what it is that we see in our living through every day.

- I think that one thing that I would've loved to known as a younger person trying to figure out the world is that, particularly related to photography, there's no such thing as a good camera, no such thing as a bad photographer.

I think we all have divinely unique ways of seeing the things that we see, and the resonance that sometimes happens in images that we are connecting to is because we are identifying with it, we're connecting.

That is something that we can all do, right, that's something that we all have in us to reach out and be like, "Here's something that I noticed."

And if you notice too, you feel less alone just immediately.

So I hope that whoever feels compelled or called to try to bear witness in their way, particularly if it's like a visual way, that they don't feel held back by not being good.

Because I think that slowed me down a lot and just also made it not fun.

You know what I mean, this is like a very beautiful practice to engage in, and it should be something that you don't judge yourself for.

So I hope that people can feel free so that we can all get free.

- Yeah, just do the work, just show up.

I think you're hearing your practice.

It is just a reminder to me too to just show up, do the work even when there, especially when there is no prize on the other side of the finish line.

- That's right.

- You know, prize on.

- That's right, that's right.

- Because that's when you find the beautiful mundane moments that you're known for.

I mean, you have this way of seeing that really makes other people feel seen.

- Yeah, neurodivergence has its perks.

[both chuckle] - There's nothing wrong with a little spicy.

- A little spectral moment, yeah.

- I know I've asked a lot of questions.

Has there been anything that you've really wanted to talk about in this space right now that I haven't asked you yet?

- Let's go.

No, just kidding.

No, I just, I'm really grateful for all the attention that the work has gotten and I'm very hopeful that people will internalize enough what we're celebrating, like that people really feel loved in this work.

And it is like Rosamund's sort of premise for this or like marching orders is like, this is a love letter to Memphis.

And so I hope that that love exists, it persists, that it can manifest in many ways.

Yeah, I'm just excited that the community gets to experience this in this way, that I get to experience this in this way, it's very nice.

- Yeah, the work definitely feels like a love letter to Memphis, so I'm just so grateful to be here in this moment with you and your work and just thank you for being who you are.

Thank you for being here and sharing this conversation with me.

And I just look forward to continuing to kind of being in community with you and continuing to learn from you.

- Yes, love you.

[upbeat music] [acoustic guitar chords]