Photographer of the week, LaToya Ruby Frazier

LaToya Ruby FrazierAmerican is an American artist and professor of photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago​ who was born in Born 1982 in Braddock, Pennsylvania.

Frazier is one of 24 winners of the 2015 MacArthur Fellowship Program which rather than an award, it's an investment in a person's originality, insight, and potential. The purpose of the MacArthur Fellows Program is to enable recipients to exercise their own creative instincts for the benefit of human society

Her most famous body of artwork titled The Notion of Family​ which chronicles photos from 2001-2014 and is a combination of self-portraits and personal family photos that she has taken to show not only the legacy of racism throughout small towns but also the economic decline.​ 

The reason why she chose Braddock, Pennsylvania is because not only is that her hometown but in 1875 it was the first major steel mill built in the country.​ This was the peak of the Industrial revolution, which brought many detrimental affects to people such as Lupus and cancers that have carried on throughout generations.

Frazier and her family have experienced issues post Industrial Revolution first hand which is another reason why she is so adamant about the topic.

Because of the decline of the economy in Braddock, Pennsylvania and other cities that were affected by the industrial revolution, Frazier documented her families decline as well which proved a huge statement that was both personal and political.

Frazier started photographing herself and her family when she was 16-years-old. She uses her photography to document and bring notice to social injustices such as discrimination, prejudices, and deindustrialization to environmental degradation.

In 2015, Frazier was awarded the Infinity Award for Best Publication by the International Center of Photography.​ She has also had many other famous series of works which include: 

• "Flint Is Family (2016),"
• "A Despoliation Of Water: From the Housatonic to Monongahela River (1930-2013) (2013)."​

"Pier 54: A Human Right Passage," which was documented by photographer Liz Ligon but Frazier staged a photo shoot that featured the artist waving flags that adorned historical photographs, such as immigrants at Ellis Island and other deportation portals. Titled A Human Right to Passage, Ruby Frazier's project is a homage to the pier's former industrial role as a site for moving both goods and people which is a site both of abstracted labor and personal history.​

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My favorite photo from this photographer is:

Self portrait of LaToya Ruby Frazier and her mother, taken by Frazier and published on her website.

In this photo, Frazier is using self portraiture to show the relation between herself and her mother. You can both tell through this series that they are progressively getting sicker and sicker and this photo shows that they are one in the same. It speaks volumes to me because it shows that they are being treated like they're not individuals or don't have their own identity, not only as sick people but as African-Americans as well. 

*All of this information was taken from Frazier's website at http://www.latoyarubyfrazier.com/