People Issue from Chicago Reader

Chicago Reader Interview by Aimee Levitt and Danielle A. Scruggs
Photos by Danielle A. Scruggs

Latoya Ruby Frazier at SAIC. Photo credit: Danielle A. Scruggs

“In form, Frazier’s black-and-white photographs echo the work of 1930s social documentarians. But, she says, “I’m not a social documentarian, I’m an artist speaking through photographs.” Unlike those older photographers, she belongs to the world she’s documenting: the body of work that generated her 2014 book The Notion of Family and won her a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2015 is an intensely personal look at how the departure of the steel industry decimated her hometown of Braddock, Pennsylvania. Frazier, 34, came to Chicago to take a teaching job at the School of the Art Institute, but the prospect of greater racial segregation and economic inequality under a Trump administration makes her want to stay: “I understand why I’m here now.”

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Courtesy of: Chicago Reader’s People Issue

LaToya Ruby Frazier receives New Museum Next Gen Award

2016 NEXTGEN dinner honoring LaToya Ruby FrazierOn the “A” w/Souleo: Presidential Election Looms over New Museum Next Generation Dinner
by Peter “Souleo” Wright
11/7/16

There couldn’t be a more opportune time for the New Museum to honor photographer, LaToya Ruby Frazier than near the end of a tumultuous presidential election season. This past Friday in New York, Frazier was honored at the annual Next Gen dinner for her social and environmental justice driven work that explores political topics such as global warming, health care, and economic inequities.

Massimiliano Gioni, artistic director at the New Museum shared that Frazier’s work takes on added weight as voters head to the polls. “LaToya’s work forces institutions and people to be aware of their position and their responsibilities and consequences,” he said. “Sadly it’s very inspiring work during time of [the] election. It shouldn’t be but it is a reminder of what’s at stake.”

No matter which candidate wins the presidency, Frazier will continue exploring disadvantaged communities. Her next series, set to debut in a solo show in February 2017 at MAC’s in Belgium, investigates coal mining villages in the area. Again, it’s particularly timely as presidential candidate, Donald Trump has reportedly stated he would “save” the coal industry.

“You have Trump and [Mike] Pence running on a message that the U.S. has a war on coal. What I’m doing in this new series is interviewing and making collaborative photographs with people who are former coal miners from Belgium,” she said. “My work has taken on a cross-cultural conversation with coal juxtaposed to the 12 years I documented about what it means to be poor in a post-Reagan era in Braddock, Pennsylvania.” Frazier explained.

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Courtesy of: The Huffington Post

LaToya speaks at Harvard Art Museums

Socially Engaged: Public and Private Storytelling

In this lecture, artist LaToya Ruby Frazier will discuss the value of collaboration—with individuals, families, and communities—to create a powerful platform for social change.

Following her talk, Frazier will be in conversation with Sarah Lewis, assistant professor in the Departments of History of Art and Architecture and African and African American Studies at Harvard University. Sebastian Smee, Pulitzer Prize–winning art critic from the Boston Globe, will be moderating the discussion.

This program is presented in conjunction with Sarah Lewis’s curricular installation Vision and Justice: The Art of Citizenship, on view in the University Teaching Gallery until January 8, 2017.

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LaToya Ruby Frazier
M. Victor Leventritt Lecture
Monday, November 7, 2016
6:00 – 7:30pm
Harvard Art Museums
32 Quincy Street
Cambridge MA

© 2008–2015 LaToya Ruby Frazier.

Courtesy of Harvard Art Museums

Talk and Book Signing at Strand

Aperture and the Strand present LaToya Ruby Frazier in conversation with Kellie Jones.

Now back in print in a new paperback edition, LaToya Ruby Frazier’s award-winning first book, The Notion of Family (Aperture, 2016), offers an incisive exploration of the legacy of racism and economic decline in America’s small towns, as embodied by her hometown of Braddock, Pennsylvania. Frazier knowingly acknowledges and expands upon the traditions of classic black-and-white documentary photography, enlisting the participation of her family, and her mother in particular. In the creation of these collaborative works, she reinforces the idea of art and image-making as a transformative act, a means of resetting traditional power dynamics and narratives—both those of her family and of the community at large.

A book signing of The Notion of Family will follow.

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Talk & Book Signing
LaToya Ruby Frazier at Strand

Monday, October 3
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
The Strand
828 Broadway & 12th Street
New York, NY 10003
TICKETED

MacArthur Genius-Grant Recipient Documents the Devastation in Flint

MacArthur Genius-Grant Recipient LaToya Ruby Frazier Documents the Devastation in Flint, MI Through the Personal Saga of Three Generations of Women in the September Issue of ELLE and in a Multimedia Digital Experience on ELLE.COM

NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwired – August 08, 2016) – ELLE announces the debut of an original multimedia documentary project, “FLINT IS FAMILY.” The project is the culmination of an in-depth, five-month endeavor between ELLE and photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier — a 2015 MacArthur genius-grant recipient-and will be revealed for the first time in the September issue of the magazine and on ELLE.com today.

In FLINT IS FAMILY — her first published work since being named a MacArthur Fellow — Frazier evokes themes from her critically acclaimed book, The Notion of Family, as she makes collaborative photos with three generations of Flint women who both suffer and thrive amid the worst man-made environmental catastrophe in recent memory. In the September issue of ELLE, FLINT IS FAMILY appears as a ten-page photographic essay featuring black and white images, along with reporting by Mattie Kahn and captions by Frazier, to create a bold visual narrative. An extensive digital package including an expanded photographic portfolio, a short film by Frazier, and an in-depth story about a Flint woman and her family, along with a report on the origins of the water crisis, a look at what’s happening now, and an examination of what’s next for the city when FEMA’s emergency funding comes to an end on August 14, premieres on ELLE.com today.

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Source: ELLE
Courtesy of: Market Wired

PHOTO CREDIT: LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER, FROM THE SERIES “FLINT IS FAMILY,” 2016 PHOTO CAPTION: Denise and Rodney Clay, Shea’s aunt and uncle, watch President Obama take a sip of Flint water on television.

Flint Lives Matter

Elle: New Photo Project by LaToya Ruby Frazier Reminds Americans that Flint Lives Matter

By Victoria L. Valentine
Courtesy of Culture Type

Photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier spent the month of May in Flint—a poor, mostly black city—documenting the effects of the contaminated water through the experiences of Shea Cobb, 32, and three generations of women in her family. Frazier’s images appear in the September issue of Elle magazine, part of a special project that features lengthy reporting by Mattie Kahn, with contributions from Anna Clark.

Frazier’s black and white photographs reveal the very specific narrative of the Cobb family, capturing everyday moments, domestic images, and shots from a family wedding, along with the wider story of how the city has failed it residents and betrayed the public trust.

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From left, Shea Cobb with her daughter Zion and mother, Ms. Renee, outside the Social Network banquet hall. | Photo courtesy Elle magazine | © LaToya Ruby Frazier, Photo courtesy Elle magazine