LaToya Ruby Frazier

LaToya Ruby Frazier (born 1982) is an American artist living and working in Braddock, Pennsylvania. Frazier began photographing her family and hometown at sixteen, revising the social documentary traditional of Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange to imagine documentation from within and by the community, and collaboration between the photographer and her subjects.[1] Inspired by Gordon Parks, who promoted the camera as a weapon for social justice, Frazier uses her tight focus to make apparent the impact of systemic problems, from racism to deindustrialization to environmental degradation, on individual bodies, relationships and spaces.[2] Speaking to the New York Times about her position, Frazier said, "“We need longer sustained stories that reflect and tell us where the prejudices and blind spots are and continue to be in this culture and society... This is a race and class issue that is affecting everyone. It is not a black problem, it is an American problem, it is a global problem. Braddock is everywhere.”[2]

Career

Frazier reports drawing and painting from a young age, and credits her Grandma Ruby's with setting high expectations for her achievements.[3] Entering college at seventeen, Frazier studied photography under Kathe Kowalski, who became an important mentor introducing her to feminist theory, semiotics and the political uses, good and bad, of photography.[3] Frazier graduated in 2004 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography and Graphic Design from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, and in 2007 received a Masters of Fine Art Photography from the School of Visual Performing Arts at Syracuse University.[4] After participating in the 2010-11 Whitney Independent Study Program, she began teaching at Yale University.[5]

Since 2009, she has been included in a range of major group exhibitions, including the New Museum's "The Generational Triennial: Younger Than Jesus", MoMA PS1's "Greater New York: 2010", the 2011 Incheon Women Artists' Biennale "Terra Incognita", and the 2012 Whitney Biennial. [6][7][8][9] Her solo museum exhibition, "A Haunted Capital," opened at the Brooklyn Museum in 2013.[10]

Awards

In 2014, Frazier was named a Guggenheim Fellow in Creative Arts.[11] The following year, she became a TED2015 Fellow and her monograph, The Notion of Family, published by Aperture in 2014, was awarded the 2015 Infinity Award for Best Publication by the The International Center of Photography (ICP).[12][13]

References

  1. ↑ Wexler, Laura (2014). "A Notion of Photography" in The Notion of Family. New York: Aperture. pp. 143–147. ISBN 978-1597112482.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Berger, Maurice (October 14, 2014). "LaToya Ruby Frazier’s Notion of Family". New York Times. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 O'Regan, Kristen (April 17, 2013). "These Dark Histories". Guernica. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  4. ↑ "LaToya Ruby Frazier". The Center for Photography at Woodstock. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  5. ↑ "The Notion of Family: Photographs by LaToya Ruby Frazier". Aperture. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  6. ↑ "The Generational Triennial: Younger Than Jesus". New Museum. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  7. ↑ "Greater New York: 2010". MoMA PS1. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  8. ↑ "2011 Incheon Women Artists Biennial". IWAB. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  9. ↑ "2012 Whitney Biennial". Whitney Museum. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  10. ↑ "LaToya Ruby Frazier: A Haunted Capital". Brooklyn Museum. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  11. ↑ "LaToya Ruby Frazier". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  12. ↑ "Meet the TED Fellows". TED. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  13. ↑ "International Center of Photography Announces 2015 Infinity Awards Winners". International Center of Photography. Retrieved 7 March 2015.