LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER. PHOTOGRAPHY BY SEAN EATON. COURTESY OF CARNEGIE MUSEUM OF ART.

“She may be America’s foremost social documentary photographer.”

That’s a recent description by the New York Times about Braddock native LaToya Ruby Frazier, whose collection of two decades of her work is on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City from May 12 through Sept. 7. 

“LaToya Ruby Frazier: Monuments of Solidarity” is the first museum survey dedicated to the artist-activist and includes several rarely and never-seen works. She uses photography, text, moving images and performance in her work.

LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER, MOMME FROM THE NOTION OF FAMILY, 2008 © 2023 LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND GLADSTONE GALLERY.

“Her work charts the experience of working-class people around the country as they face compounding challenges of deindustrialization, environmental degradation and inequality. Through it all, her hometown Braddock remains her best template for understanding the world,” the New York Times wrote in a preview of the exhibition.

Frazier, 42, grew up in her grandparents’ home on Washington Street in Braddock. In high school she began taking photographs of her friends, family and neighborhood with a digital camera, and her interest in photography was further enhanced by instructors at Edinboro University, which she started attending at age 16.

LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER, GRANDMA RUBY AND ME FROM THE NOTION OF FAMILY, 2005 © 2024 LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND GLADSTONE GALLERY.

She made her mark in the aughts with “The Notion of Family,” documenting the relationships among herself, her mother and grandmother and the family relationship with Braddock.

She went on to chronicle the struggles of families dealing with the drinking water crisis in Flint, Michigan; members of the United Auto Workers in Lordstown, Ohio, after General Motors announced the closure of its plant there; and Black and working-class community health workers trying to provide medical and support services in Baltimore. That pandemic project, “More than Conquerers: A Monument for Community Health Workers of Baltimore, Maryland 2021-2022,” won the top prize at the Carnegie International in 2022. She also won a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2015 and was named to Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024.

LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER, EDGAR THOMSON PLANT AND THE BOTTOM FROM A DESPOLIATION OF WATER: FROM THE HOUSATONIC TO THE MONONGAHELA RIVER (1930-2013), 2013 © 2023 LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND GLADSTONE GALLERY.

In addition to those projects, the exhibit at MoMA will include her latest work in California: “A Pilgrimage to Dolores Huerta,”  about the American labor leader and civil rights activist who co-founded the United Farm Workers union with Cesar Chavez. 

LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER, SHEA BRUSHING ZION’S TEETH WITH BOTTLED WATER IN HER BATHROOM, FLINT, MICHIGAN, FLINT IS FAMILY IN THREE ACTS, 2016-2017 © 2023 LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND GLADSTONE GALLERY.