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Norfolk — Breon Corbett, 31, spent a good chunk of his summer marching in Richmond.
More than 155 years after the city lost its status as the capital of the Confederacy, it became the epicenter for protests and racial justice movements following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was handcuffed and pinned to the pavement underneath the knee of Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer.
Corbett, a Norfolk native and Granby High School graduate, straddled two identities as he walked elbow to elbow with friends and strangers.
“It was hard, as a black photographer I wanted to get up and do something and be part of the movement because it is Black people that are being treated unfairly by police brutality, systematic racism, and government wrong-doings,” Corbett said.
He also wanted to document history. Day after day, Corbett took to the streets with camera in hand, making photographs of graffiti-covered Confederate monuments days before their removal, incidences of police brutality, and unity between strangers and demonstrators.
Starting Oct. 30, some of Corbett’s photographs will be on display at Slowdive, a new art and food space in Norfolk’s NEON District located at 117 E. Princess Anne Road. The exhibit is called “Our Streets.”
“These are the people’s streets; we live in these streets. We’re going to keep protesting, keep marching, and talking in our streets. We are unified in these streets,” Corbett said, explaining that thousands marched nationwide throughout the summer against police brutality and racial injustice.
“People were peacefully protesting what is being done to us, and then the police turned around and used brute force on us and bullied us,” he said, referring to a number of times Richmond police used tear gas, pepper spray, and violence, sending residents running for safety.
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Corbett’s work will be shown with that of 14 other photographers know as the “Wild Bunch,” all of whom participated in demonstrations in the capital city this summer including Richmond native and Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe.
Charles Rasputin, Slowdive’s chief operating officer and one of its four chefs, said selecting the exhibit to serve as the gallery’s first big event was necessary with the country’s most fraught presidential election ever looming.
“Our Streets” aligns perfectly with Slowdive’s creative strategy to “use art as a weapon to deflect the monstrosities that we’re seeing in our country.”
“Hopefully, people will look into the perspective of these 15 young people who put their lives and their safety on the line to document a turbulent summer in the ex-capital of the Confederacy, and maybe when they do, they’ll realize that our southern heritage should be more about southern hospitality than southern brutality,” he said.
Corbett agreed, saying he sought to change the city’s narrative through his art while drawing attention to a life taken at the hands of Richmond police two years ago, Marcus-David Peters.
Peters was a 24-year-old Black man who was shot and killed while experiencing a mental health crisis in May 2018, Corbett said.
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“I 100 percent believe that Peters would be alive and that situation would’ve been diffused if we allocated money for health professionals to go out and talk with people instead of just sending the police,” Corbett said.
Between photos of protest, Corbett fixed his lens to make images of hope, including some of his 15-year-old son who accompanied him one weekend to celebrate Father’s Day and Juneteenth. R&B singer Trey Songz, a Petersburg native, even showed up and participated in a bike ride for the occasion.
Corbett, who moved to Richmond five years ago, said he used the weekend as an opportunity to speak honestly with his son.
“He’s at the age now where he understands the world and what’s going on around him. It’s a world that won’t be the same for him as a Black boy and I had to talk with him about interacting with police, about being respectful and what to do and how to act. I’m scared for him,” Corbett said.
Do white fathers have to tell their sons the same thing, Corbett wondered.
“I don’t know if any white man has ever had to do that. It’s time for change.”
Amy Poulter, 757-446-2705, amy.poulter@pilotonline.com