LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER (B. 1982)

LaToya Ruby Frazier embraces the canonical history of black-and-white documentary photography in order to depict issues of race and economic decline in small-town America. Frazier’s work, as featured in the award-winning Aperture text The Notion of Family, implements a cast of familial characters in order to articulate personal scenes from her home life in Braddock, Pennsylvania. The present lot, Mom Relaxing My Hair, 2006 cast the photographer as both the subject and the voyeur, through the use of a shutter release cable Frazier seamlessly blends herself into the narrative, making this a work of both documentary and performative photography.