LaToya Ruby Frazier

LaToya Ruby Frazier (born 1982) is an American artistic photographer who uses the medium to impact both art and social justice. Quotes "Despite all the barriers, roadblocks, and obstacles that have come into my path," "I am doing what's right." "a rebuttal to media reporting and mentalities that accuse black families in Braddock [of being] the cause of its blighted condition," "Braddock has become a poster child for rustbelt revitalization, a place for 'urban pioneers discovering a new frontier'—never mind the continued crisis of racism, segregation, socioeconomic inequality, industrialism, environmental pollution, and healthcare inequity plaguing its population." "I will continue to make purposeful, useful, and meaningful work," Genius" Photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier Is Using Her Camera as a Weapon-ELLE (27 October 2015) “We survived a really rough period of the war on drugs.” Q&A: Braddock’s LaToya Ruby Frazier takes on Levi’s and ‘ruin porn’ chic-LosAngeles Times(5 December 2014) “That’s where my story starts,” “I grew up watching people give their bodies to industry,” “And then struggle to survive when the work was done.” “That’s when everything changed,” “The personal became political.” “It’s not about capturing an image,” “It’s about building a relationship.” “The damage is still there. The trauma is still there,” “And the families are still there.” “They’re my family now,” “I don’t leave people behind.” “I had to learn how to see the city the way she saw it,” “This is what slow violence looks like,” “It’s daily life.” “They were left to survive something they did not cause,” “The story didn’t end when the media left,” “And I wasn’t going to leave either.” “My photographs are not the point,” “The people are the point.” “And why not?” “Why wasn’t that connection made for us?” “We hear about Cesar Chavez,” “But we don’t hear about Dolores’s relationship to Walter Reuther.” “It was like Dorothea was looking back at me,” “This is what it means to let your work speak to you,” “He spent his life knocking on doors,” “Encouraging people to stand up.” ‘The Personal Became Political’: LaToya Ruby Frazier on Labor, Loss, and Accountability-KERN SOL NEWS(27 February 2026) “This has been the most organic, harmonious working relationship,” “When they asked if I would be interested in doing an actual museum survey, it kind of blew my mind, because I’m only 42,” “Every one of my bodies of work has been re-adapted to be a workers’ monument,” she said. “It’s the opportunity of a lifetime.” “All the things I’m covering are all things I’ve experienced,” “I come from community that’s been forgotten. Being a little girl coming of age, looking at the impact of Reaganomics in my community, it was a very real and visceral thing for me.” “It felt necessary to go beyond it. That’s when I realized why it’s so necessary to have artists who want to tell the story for a period of years.” “This is the kind of stuff that lights a fire under me,” “seeing these Black women just being so resilient in the face of spatial and structural racism. It is what was keeping me engaged and wanting to keep shouldering it with them.” “What I’m really doing is organizing through the process of making photographs,” “I help viewers see like: ‘Oh, I can take pictures and tell stories and organize in my local community on the ground.’ I don’t think people understand the fullness and potential of photographers, how you can use the power of photographs to make real institutional change.” “I’m creating a correction to that history,” “Paying the homage and respect back to Dorothea Lange, back to Florence Owens Thompson, through what Dolores Huerta represents. It’s a beautiful, touching way to bring back a correction, a reframing of these histories and a subversion of these power dynamics. And that’s what I really want Americans to learn.” Artist and activist LaToya Ruby Frazier: ‘I come from community that’s been forgotten’-The Guardian (2008 Category:American art historians Category:Women