Philip Montgomery: American Cycles

The works by Mexican-American documentary photographer Philip Montgomery (b. 1988) are distinguished by a palpable tension between the timelessness of his dramatic visual language and the urgent contemporaneity of the America he portrays. American Cycles at PHOXXI, the Temporary House of Photography of the Deichtorhallen Hamburg, marks the artist's first major institutional solo exhibition worldwide.  On view from 26 November 2025 until 10 May 2026, the exhibition offers a unique insight into a decade shaped by profound social and political upheaval. In addition to acclaimed stories, originally commissioned by The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker, the exhibition presents, for the first time, previously unpublished photographs as well as Montgomery’s latest independent projects.

Montgomery’s photographs trace contemporary tensions and emergent alliances, capturing moments such as the populist election campaign of Donald Trump, the Black Lives Matter movement in response to systemic racism and police violence, and families displaced by ecological and economic crises. The exhibition offers a unique insight into a decade of American history marked by profound social and political upheaval. Despite such deep-rooted – and, often, deliberately inflamed – conflicts, Montgomery asks how we might exist in solidarity with those perceived as the ‘other’.

For Montgomery, documentary photography is never synonymous with emotional restraint or ostensibly neutral gestures. He depicts the realities of contemporary American life through the use of flash, iconic visual compositions and moments that often seem almost impossible to capture – each constructing a simultaneous sense of emotive timelessness and specific urgency. Beyond mere observation, his images invite viewers to reflect on the enduring physical and psychological dimensions of ecological, economic, political and social violence within the dynamics of contemporary America.

Curated by Nadine Isabelle Henrich, Curator of the House of Photography, in close collaboration with Philip Montgomery.