LaToya Ruby Frazier’s The Last Cruze chosen by TIME as one of the best photo books of 2021
The Last Cruze by LaToya Ruby Frazier, The Renaissance Society, University of Chicago
The Last Cruze by LaToya Ruby Frazier is an extensive, collaborative body of work that focuses on General Motors autoworkers in Lordstown, Ohio, who are members of the United Auto Workers labor union. After the plant abruptly ceased production in 2019, thousands of workers had to decide whether to transfer to another plant or risk losing their jobs and benefits. Frazier sensitively documents the autoworkers and their families’ stories during this difficult time. Through black-and-white portraits of the union members in their homes alongside personal testimonies, Frazier explores themes of resilience, solidarity and shared purpose, as well as the importance of advocating for workers.
Women’s Committee final gathering inside their conference room at UAW Local 1112 Reutehr Scandy Alli union hall (left to right, Crystal Carpenter, Linda Hash, Trisha Brown, RaNeal Edwards, Pamela Brown, Marilyn Moore, Mary Ola Stemple, Tunisha Bell, and Frances Turnage), Lordstown, OH, 2019 LaToya Ruby Frazier—The Renaissance Society, University of Chicago
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LaToya Ruby Frazier, Devin Allen and Jamel Shabazz are the Subject of the New Documentary, ‘A Choice Of Weapons: Inspired By Gordon Parks,’ Debuting On HBO.
By the time Gordon Parks shot his first photograph for Life Magazine, his mother had died, racism had forced him out of his hometown of Fort Scott, Kansas, and he’d worked in brothels, as a singer, and as a professional basketball player. He was not yet 30 when he captured the infamous image titled “American Gothic” and the follow-up sequence of photos of Ella Watson. Watson worked as a cleaner in the Farm Security Administration building where Parks had a fellowship. HBO’s documentary, A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks, doesn’t simply examine the photographer’s extensive body of work. It also explores his activism and what it meant to preserve the 20th-century Black experience through his camera lens.
In all of his varied versions of life, Parks strived to be seen, and he learned quickly through his photographs how important it was for the world to see Black people as they truly lived and existed, instead of solely through a white gaze. By documenting the lives of Malcolm X, Black rural Southerners, and even a gang leader in Harlem, Parks would become a leader, inspiring a new generation of photographers who have used their cameras to active their voices. […]
Frazier’s journey behind the camera came only after immersing herself with her subjects. “I was making portraits of families living in homeless shelters in Erie, Pennsylvania for my beginning photography course at Edinboro University,” she explained. “At first, I did not take my camera to the shelter but instead spent time with each family to the point people thought I resided in the shelter too. One evening, there was a lovely Black woman whose omnipresent energy had drawn me in close to her. When I returned the next week to give her prints of her portrait, that’s when she told me that the image reminded her of a man she once saw on PBS named Gordon Parks and then [she] asked me if I ever heard of him, to which I replied, ‘No,’ and she said, ‘Well you should.’”
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Los Angeles Times Entertainment & Arts By Deborah Vankin
Gordon Parks’ self-portrait, taken in 1948. The photographer, and the artists he inspired, are the subjects of a new HBO documentary. (From the Gordon Parks Foundation and HBO)
“A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks” debuts on HBO Monday night, a date that commemorates the photographer’s late November birthday. The film is less a chronological telling of Parks’ life story (the 2000 HBO documentary “Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks” details that) and instead focuses on his legacy — specifically on the generation of photographers, activists and artists that he inspired. Singer-songwriter Alicia Keys and rapper-producer Swizz Beatz are executive producers and luminaries including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bryan Stevenson, Ava DuVernay and Spike Lee are among those who make appearances in the film, speaking to how Parks — who was also a film director, composer, author and activist — shaped their bodies of work and the world.
“At a time and in a society where Black people were told far too often that we’re criminals, that we’re ugly, that we’re less worthy to have the spotlight on us for any reason,” DuVernay says in the film, “Gordon put a lens and a light on us for ourselves and allowed us to see the elegance of the lives that we live and the places where we are.” […]
Three contemporary photographers provide the connective tissue for the film’s structure: Baltimore-based Devin Allen, LaToya Ruby Frazier of Chicago, and New York City’s Jamel Shabazz. Their personal stories and insights about Parks add another layer of intimacy and immediacy that courses through the documentary’s narrative.
[…]
Frazier, 39, always knew she would be an artist while growing up in the Pennsylvania steel mill town of Braddock. She studied photography at Edinboro University, but learned about Parks from a homeless woman she was making portraits of at a nearby shelter at the time.
“I came back with the portrait that we made together and when I handed it to her, she said: ‘this reminds me of a man I once saw on PBS, Gordon Parks,’” Frazier says, adding that she raced to a Barnes & Noble afterward and bought a book about Parks.
The next semester she learned more about Parks in a photography class, which touched on his aforementioned “American Gothic” portrait, one of his most famous images. Watson, the woman in the image, was a so-called “charwoman” or janitor at the time. The photograph was taken at the Farm Security Administration offices in Washington, D.C.
“That photograph by Gordon taught me how to speak through a photograph and make social commentary about the United States,” Frazier says. “This image asks the viewer a question, which is: ‘what is the value of a Black woman’s life in America?’”
Frazier now focuses her lens on working-class communities, healthcare inequality and environmental justice issues. She spent five months living in Flint, Mich., photo-documenting how the city’s water crisis affected residents. Last year, she photographed Breonna Taylor’s family for “Vanity Fair.” It’s work she feels would make Parks proud.
“I think that the images that I made speak to his spirt and his influence,” she says.
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Black Girl Nerds Movie Reviews By Cassondra Feltus
HBO’s ‘A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks’ Is a Visual History of the Photographer’s Art and Activism
This new documentary delves into the life and work of photographer, filmmaker, writer, composer, and activist Gordon Parks. Directed by John Maggio (Mr. Saturday Night), the documentary chronicles the fascinating story of a self-taught photographer from Kansas and his rise to a multi-hyphenate pop-culture icon. The film explores the psychology behind photography, the power of an image, and the importance of uplifting others through art.
The documentary features interviews with artists, activists, friends, and family, including Jelani Cobb, Ava DuVernay (Selma), Nelson George, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman), Anderson Cooper, Khalil Muhammad, Bryan Stevenson, Richard Roundtree (Shaft), Michal Raz-Russo, and Darren Walker. It’s produced by Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean, Alicia Keys, Gordon Parks Foundation director Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr., and HBO Documentary Films.
A Choice of Weapons looks at Gordon Parks’ cultural impact through the lens of three contemporary photographers — Devin Allen, LaToya Ruby Frazier, and Jamel Shabazz. Each has made a name for themselves with powerful photos. Allen’s photo from the Freddie Gray protests, “Baltimore Uprising,” landed on the cover of Time Magazine in 2015. For five years, Frazier covered the Flint, Michigan, water crisis in her series, “Flint Is Family,” for Elle. Most recently, she photographed Breonna Taylor’s family for Vanity Fair. Shabazz has documented hip-hop culture on the streets of New York since the 1980s.
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Today HBO released the official trailer for the documentary, A Choice Of Weapons: Inspired By Gordon Parks. The film explores the enduring legacy of photographer, writer, composer, activist and filmmaker, Gordon Parks, and spotlights his visionary work and its impact on the next generation of artists. The film debuts Monday, November 15 (10:00-11:30 p.m. ET/PT), commemorating Gordon Parks birthday (November 30) and will debut on HBO and be available to stream on HBO Max.
The life and work of Gordon Parks remains strikingly relevant today. A Choice Of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks explores the power of images to inspire a new generation to work for social change. Through the lens of three contemporary photographers, we see Gordon’s legacy come to life. Devin Allen whose photograph “Baltimore Uprising” of the Freddie Gray protests was featured on the cover of Time Magazine; LaToya Ruby Frazier who for five years followed the Flint, Michigan water crisis and most recently photographed Breonna Taylor’s family for Vanity Fair; and Jamel Shabazz whose photographs on the streets of New York form a visual history of the hip hop era while simultaneously presenting affirming images for his community.
‘A Choice Of Weapons: Inspired By Gordon Parks’ an HBO original documentary about legendary photographer Gordon Parks and the influence he’s had on a new generation of artists.
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Clément Chéroux Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz Chief Curator of Photography
Michelle Elligott Chief of Archives, Library, and Research Collections
MoMA selects LaToya Ruby Frazier, The Last Cruze (The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, 2020) as one of ‘Our Favorite Photobooks of 2021’
[MoMA is] launching a new yearly celebration of the photobook. The list comprises 10 favorite photobooks of 2021, dating between July 2020 and August 2021. These books are now part of [the MoMA] Library collection, and are also available for anyone to purchase in the [MoMA] Design Store. Here, we’ve invited our colleagues across the Photography and Archives, Library, and Research Collections departments to contribute short descriptions of these standout titles.
LaToya Ruby Frazier, The Last Cruze
In The Last Cruze (The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, 2020), LaToya Ruby Frazier documents the ripple effects caused by General Motors’ decision in November 2018 to “unallocate” its plant in Lordstown, Ohio. After more than 50 years in operation, in March 2019 GM called off production of the Chevrolet Cruze, leaving some 2,000 factory workers and their families uprooted. The events caused a historic loss of heritage in Lordstown, bringing intensified attention to the small Rust Belt town, which emerged as a subject of political dispute. The book pairs Frazier’s black-and-white portraits of working-class Americans with their unflinching testimonies, and brings together a selection of color images taken by Kasey King, an autoworker and photographer for the labor union UAW Local 1112, inside the plant (where Frazier was not allowed to photograph). A careful, research-driven project, The Last Cruze includes a timeline of union history in America and a series of incisive essays by writer Coco Fusco, art historian Benjamin J. Young, curators Karsten Lund and Solveig Øvstebø, and sociologist Werner Lange, alongside interviews with Marxist geographer David Harvey, US Senator Sherrod Brown, and the playwright Lynn Nottage. Frazier’s project amplifies a deep lineage of socially engaged photobooks by Gordon Parks, and is linked to the conceptual practices of Martha Rosler and Allan Sekula.
–Roxana Marcoci, Senior Curator, Department of Photography
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