2015 ICP Infinity Awards - Publication: LaToya Ruby Frazier
LaToya Ruby Frazier’s body of work “The Notion of Family” examines the impact of the steel industry and the health care system on the community and her family. Collaborating with her mother and grandmother, she uses her family as a lens to view the past, present and future of the town.
As a child, LaToya Ruby Frazier could sense the steel industry’s hold on her hometown of Braddock, Pennsylvania. Her body of work “The Notion of Family” examines the impact of the steel industry and the health care system on the community and her family. Collaborating with her mother and grandmother, she uses her family as a lens to view the past, present and future of the town.
Credits
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Now available in a paperback edition, LaToya Ruby Frazier’s award-winning first book, The Notion of Family, offers an incisive exploration of the legacy of racism and economic decline in America’s small towns, as embodied by her hometown of Braddock, Pennsylvania.
Photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier (born 1982) grew up in Braddock, PA, a borough in the American Rust Belt ravaged by the steel-industry crisis that hit the US during the Reagan administration. In this former bastion of the steel industry, the artist was raised in her Afro-American family, whose story she told in The Notion of Family.
As the General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio halted production and faced possible closure, displacing its workers, artist LaToya Ruby Frazier joined with these workers, their families, and their local union leaders to tell the story of the plant in its final days.
Frazier's (born 1982) portraits reflect both a political engagement with and a personal investment in her subject matter. This book presents her seminal series The Notion of a Family, in which she documents three generations of her own family in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, alongside two more recent projects: On the Making of Steel Genesis: Sandra Gould Ford (2017), made in close collaboration with artist and steelworker Sandra Gould Ford; and Et des terrils un arbre s'élèvera (2016–17), made with the people of Mons in Borinage, Belgium, once home to a coalmine.
The Goal
For over 30 years, the International Center for Photography (ICP) has celebrated the leading image-makers in various categories through the Infinity Awards. Harbers Studios commissioned MediaStorm, on behalf of ICP, to create a short documentary for each award-winner. The purpose of the films was to showcase the photographer and his or her work at the Infinity Awards event.
The Challenge
For this project, we needed to make a film about an already-existing body of work, which meant that any new footage would have to reflect the work in either style or content. LaToya often photographed in black and white, collaborating with her mother and grandmother to create portraits that explored the impact of industry on her family. We needed to film scenes that would highlight her work.
The Solution
We decided to connect the footage to the photographs by filming on location in LaToya’s hometown—Braddock, Pennsylvania. LaToya’s photographs were rooted in a sense of place, and we felt the town was as much of a character in her work as her family. To embrace the setting of her images, we filmed the interview in the iconic Braddock Carnegie Library. Additionally, we spent the day walking around town with LaToya. We filmed scenes with her as she guided us through her memories of her family and the town.
The Results
The films were shown on April 30, 2015 at the 2015 International Center of Photography’s Infinity Awards in New York and launched online on May 1, 2015.
About The Client
This film was a collaboration with Harbers Studio and the International Center of Photography.
Harbers Studios turbocharges the efforts of charitable entrepreneurs by helping them tell their stories. Our goal is to help them articulate and share the value of the work they do so they can inspire others to help them do it. Working with some of the best filmmaking talent in the world, we create compelling visual narratives that enhance the endeavors of organizations working to make the world a better place.
The International Center of Photography (ICP) is the world’s leading institution dedicated to the practice and understanding of photography and the reproduced image in all its forms. Through our exhibitions, educational programs, and community outreach, we offer an open forum for dialogue about the role images play in our culture. Since our founding, we have presented more than 500 exhibitions and offered thousands of classes, providing instruction at every level. ICP is a center where photographers and artists, students and scholars can create and interpret the world of the image within our comprehensive educational facilities and archive.
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About the ICP Infinity Awards
Since 1985, the International Center of Photography has recognized outstanding achievements in photography with its prestigious Infinity Awards. The awards ceremony is also ICP’s primary fundraising benefit, with its revenues assisting the center's various programs.
Harbers Studios commissioned MediaStorm, on behalf of ICP, to create a short film about each of the recipients to screen at the awards ceremony and to display online. The films pay tribute to the contributions of each artist to the craft and field of photography and demonstrate ICP's commitment to them.