LaToya Ruby Frazier facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
LaToya Ruby Frazier
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LaToya Ruby Frazier at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 2024
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| Born | 1982 (age 42–43) Braddock, Pennsylvania, US
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| Education | Edinboro University of Pennsylvania (BFA, 2004) Syracuse University (MFA, 2007) Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, (2011) |
| Known for | Photography, video art, performance art |
| Awards | Creative Capital Award (2012) Guna S. Mundheim Fellowship in the Visual Arts (2014) Guggenheim Fellowship (2014) MacArthur Fellowship (2015) |
LaToya Ruby Frazier (born in 1982) is an American artist. She is known for her powerful photographs and videos. Her work often explores how big problems like racism and changes in industry affect people and their communities.
Contents
Early Life and Photography
LaToya Ruby Frazier grew up in Braddock, Pennsylvania. When she was 16, she started taking pictures of her family and hometown. She wanted to show life from the inside, working with the people she photographed.
Frazier was inspired by Gordon Parks, a famous photographer. Parks believed a camera could be a tool for social justice. Frazier uses her art to highlight problems like racism, factories closing down, and harm to the environment. She shows how these issues affect individuals and their relationships. She believes these are not just local problems, but global ones.
She once told The New York Times that we need more stories. These stories help us see where unfairness and blind spots still exist in society. She explained that issues of race and class affect everyone. She said, "Braddock is everywhere," meaning the problems seen in her hometown can be found all over the world.
Education and Learning
Frazier started college at 17. She studied photography with Kathe Kowalski, who became a very important teacher for her. Kowalski taught her about feminist theory and how photography can be used for good or bad.
In 2004, Frazier earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She studied Photography and Graphic Design at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. Later, in 2007, she received her Master of Fine Art Photography. This degree was from the School of Visual Performing Arts at Syracuse University.
After finishing her studies, she participated in a special program at the Whitney Museum of American Art. She also taught at Yale University. Frazier's strong education helped her become the artist she is today.
Artistic Career
LaToya Ruby Frazier started drawing and painting when she was very young. She says her Grandma Ruby always encouraged her to achieve great things.
Since 2009, her work has been shown in many important group art shows. These include exhibitions at the New Museum and MoMA PS1. She also had a solo museum exhibition called A Haunted Capital. This show opened at the Brooklyn Museum in 2013.
In 2014, Frazier released her first book, The Notion of Family. This book won an award from the International Center of Photography.
Awards and Recognition
LaToya Ruby Frazier has received many awards for her art. Some of these include:
- Art Matters (2010)
- Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2011)
- Theo Westenberger Award from the Creative Capital Foundation (2012)
- Gwendolyn Knight & Jacob Lawrence Prize from the Seattle Art Museum (2013)
In 2014, she was named a Guggenheim Fellow in Creative Arts. The next year, she became a TED2015 Fellow. Her book, The Notion of Family, also won the 2015 Infinity Award for Best Publication.
In 2015, Frazier received a MacArthur Fellowship. This is a very special award. She said the award showed that her work was important. It was a "testimony and a fight for social justice and cultural change."
More recently, in 2018, she was named a Sundance Institute Art of Nonfiction Fellow. In 2020, she received the first Gordon Parks Foundation/Steidl Book Prize. In 2021, she was given an Honorary Fellowship by the Royal Photographic Society.
Themes in Her Work
LaToya Ruby Frazier's photographs show both personal moments and stories of unfairness in America. Her work includes honest pictures of friends and family. It also shows examples of social injustice. Frazier explains that her work with her family mixes self-portraits with social documentary.
Often, her art focuses on her hometown of Braddock, Pennsylvania. This town faced hard times after the steel industry declined in the 1970s and 1980s. Through black and white photos, Frazier shows the beauty of Braddock. She also highlights how the town has affected her family and other residents. Her pictures show both strength and vulnerability in a very real way.
Besides her famous work The Notion of Family, Frazier has explored other important issues. One project, Flint is Family, focused on the Flint water crisis. This series showed a young woman and her family living their daily lives. They faced difficult water conditions in their community in Flint, Michigan. Frazier also contributed photos to a New York Times project. It explored challenges faced by Black mothers and babies in America.
Frazier's art explores ideas of place, race, and family. She combines self-portraits with social stories. Her main subjects are her Grandma Ruby, her mother, and herself. The changing landscape of Braddock, a former steel town, is often the background of her images. She shows how the environment and buildings decay after industries leave. She also shows the lives of people who continue to live there.
Frazier says, "I see myself as an artist and a citizen that's documenting and telling the story." She wants to build a record of working-class families dealing with big changes. Through her own family, she shares the history of Braddock. Her work encourages discussions about social responsibility.
In 2018, a special issue of Atlantic Magazine featured Frazier's aerial photos and an essay. It showed the impact of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on cities like Memphis, Chicago, and Baltimore. Her photos were also in the 2019 New York Times Magazine Money Issue. This photo essay focused on the people of Lordstown, Ohio, after a General Motors plant closed.
Exhibitions
LaToya Ruby Frazier's work has been shown in many places around the world.
Solo Exhibitions
- Brooklyn Museum, A Haunted Capital (2013)
- Seattle Art Museum, Born by a River (2013)
- Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Witness (2013)
- Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Witness (2013)
- Gavin Brown's Enterprise, New York, NY (2018)
- Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany (2021)
Group Exhibitions
- The Way of the Shovel, Art as Archaeology, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL (2013)
- Empire State, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy (2013)
- Gertrude's/LOT, Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA (2011)
- Commercial Break, Garage Projects, 54th Venice Biennale, Italy (2011)
- Greater New York, MoMA PS1, New York, NY (2010)
- The Generational Triennial: Younger Than Jesus, New Museum, New York, NY (2009)
Biennials
- Busan Biennale, South Korea (2014)
- Recycling Memory: Recapturing the Lost City, 11th Nicaraguan Visual Arts Biennial, Managua (2014)
- Mom, am, I barbarian?, 13th Istanbul Biennial (2013)
- Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2012)
See also
In Spanish: LaToya Ruby Frazier para niños
