LaToya Ruby Frazier is an American photographer, artist, and activist from Braddock, Pennsylvania. She is best known for her work documenting the decline of the industrial city of Braddock and its effects on the African-American community.
Frazier was born in 1982 in Braddock, a small steel town outside of Pittsburgh. Growing up in a working-class family, she was exposed to the struggles of poverty and racism at an early age. This experience would later inform her work as an artist and activist.
Frazier attended Edinboro University of Pennsylvania where she earned a BFA in photography in 2004. After graduating, she moved to New York City to pursue her career as an artist. In 2007, Frazier received her MFA from Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts.
In 2008, Frazier began working on her first major project: a series of photographs documenting the decline of Braddock and its effects on its African-American community. The project was later published as a book titled "The Notion of Family" (2014). The book won numerous awards including the International Center for Photography Infinity Award for Applied Documentary Photography (2015).
In addition to her photographic work, Frazier has also been active in social justice movements such as Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street. She has also served as an adjunct professor at Yale University's School of Art since 2015.
Frazier's work has been exhibited internationally at venues such as the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), Tate Modern (London), and Centre Pompidou (Paris). Her photographs have been featured in publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Time Magazine, and Vogue Italia.
Frazier continues to live and work in Pittsburgh where she is currently working on a new project about environmental racism in Flint Michigan.