Art and Activism: looking through the lens of Latoya Ruby Frazier


After sitting in on a zoom call by Latoya Ruby Frazier, who explained how she’s an artist that combines activism to create a powerful piece that is directed towards the community she lives in, I learned that she breaks the boundary between people and their culture. She is a Chicago based artist who devotes her time to projects that focus on her community and its people. She is an activist who is trying to strip the facade of a picture perfect society and show the injustices these people have to face everyday. Frazier captures the anguish and devastation seen throughout different communities, showcasing a diverse group of people of all races and ages. As a female Black artist, Frazier’s mission is to open the eyes of her fellow Americans, bringing to light the hardships and economic toll put onto the working class. She shows the obstacles as much as the beauty (the culture of the community and its people) within the cracks of the people’s struggles and the buildings around them. 


What makes her work different is that she not only photographs her subjects, but creates relationships with them in the process. For example, Frazier had the opportunity of working with Breonna Taylor’s family for the magazine Vanity Fair in September of 2020. She made it a point to sit down with them and have a conversation about their daughter Breonna. Forming that connection allowed her to evoke a genuine emotion and their story in its truest form to be vocalized through her art. Her intention is to show to her audience the imperfect ways of our society, but also that those imperfect flaws can become something beautiful through the lens that is art. Especially with the Black Live Matter Movement in its present form, so getting that powerful imagery was important for the cause she represents (Black Lives Matter, Women’s rights, and her community).






        LaToya Ruby Frazier, Momme, 2018   

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-latoya-ruby-fraziers-photographs-stories-forgotten-americans

 LaToya Ruby Frazier, Breonna Taylor’s Uncle, Aunt, Mother, Cousins and Family Friend at memorial of Breonna Taylor, 2020

https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2020/08/breonna-taylor

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