Photographer: LaToya Ruby Frazier (b. 1982) The Notion of Family

Living in close quarters with my family since March has got me thinking a lot about family, our roles in families, and how our identities and sensibilities are influenced by family. 

As the world of art and visiting museums has been transferred solely on line, I find myself escaping into art more and more in order to explore the different stories of artists, their points of views, their visions.  LaToya Ruby Frazier is an artist whose work I have viewed online in the MoMA’s collection, and I find myself returning to her powerful work again and again. Influenced by 20th century documentary photographers like Lewis Hine and Jacob Riis, as well as Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange, her portraits completely consume me as deeply as any novel I have ever read. They are both documentational and deeply personal.

Grandma and JC in Her Kitchen (2006)

In 2014, Frazier published a book entitled, “The Notion of Family,” a series of photographs Frazier took in her childhood home in Braddock, Pennsylvania. What I learned about Braddock, located on the Monongahela River not far from Pittsburgh, is that the town is the site of Andrew Carnegie’s first steel mill built in 1875. At the beginning of the 20th century, the population of the town was close to 20,000 people; by 1990, it was down to 4,600. The narrative of her work is so strong and vivid. In an interview Frazier says that the project was a collaboration with her family: “My grandmother, mother, and I are authoring those images. I would take the contact sheets home and my mother would say, ‘look I wanted you to take this photograph of me because that’s who I was then, it’s not who I am now. The moment you clicked the shutter on that photograph it was no longer me.”

Self-portrait in Gramps’ pajamas, (2009)

Frazier says: “My audience has to understand the The Notion of Family is myself as subject transitioning from a youth to an adult. I was learning so much along the way about my heritage, culture, and identity. My aspiration and hope was that I could add my grandmother, mother and grandpa to the history of Braddock, making sure their names live and count. I was using my art-work as a creative solution--as a means to my survival. I was trying to humanize a very difficult situation.”

Gramps on his bed, (2003); Momme (Shadow), from Momme Portrait Series, 2008

“Through my Grandma Ruby’s discipline, I learned that my only way up was through my education, academically and creatively.” 

The concept of truth in history, of protecting the voices of all the players in history, is a topic in history that I want to explore and study further.  So it is no surprise that I am so drawn to Frazier’s work and its powerful voice that will not be ignored.  I want to end this blog entry with Frazier’s own words that resonate:

LaToya Ruby Frazier, Momme, (2008)

“The collaboration between my mother and I was a direct response to the elite viewpoint that only the privileged know what’s best for the disenfranchised or marginalized.  Through our collaboration, we demystified the idea that only outsiders can author the history and storytelling of the poor.  We bridged the gap between theory and reality.  This was the challenge my work had to face.  Each photographer’s work, depending on its subject and content, will come with a set of challenges.  I can’t tell photographers one specific map to take.  I do believe that the lived experience is indeed a criterion for knowledge.”