Social injus­tices, racism, labor migration, environ­mental pollution—with her black-and-white photo­graphs, videos, and perfor­mances, LaToya Ruby Frazier (b. 1982, USA) focuses on familial and socio­po­li­tical realities. With True Pictures? LaToya Ruby Frazier, the Kunst­mu­seum Wolfsburg is presen­ting the first solo exhibi­tion of the multiple award-winning artist in Germany.

LaToya Ruby Frazier is currently one of the most important young photo­graphers in North America. In and with her work, she takes sides with the working class of the United States, which is forced to live in at times preca­rious condi­tions due to, among other things, unemploy­ment, drinking water conta­mi­na­tion, or the degra­dation of indus­trial cities. In the spirit of the film director and photo­gra­pher Gordon Parks, LaToya Ruby Frazier incre­a­singly uses her camera as a weapon against injustice, intole­rance, and poverty. She succeeds in portraying socially relevant issues in a parti­cu­larly empathetic way, often staging them on the basis of biogra­phical contexts: For example, her own family and friends are repeatedly the subject of her photo­graphs. The range of her motifs within the various series therefore extends from intimate glimpses of family life and genre scenes to landscape images that can almost be described as classical—if it weren’t for the knowledge of the often economic and ecolo­gical disasters associated with the areas photographed.

With the exhibi­tion True Pictures? LaToya Ruby Frazier, the Kunst­mu­seum Wolfsburg is part of the coope­ra­tion project True Pictures? Contem­porary Photo­graphy from Canada and the USA, a survey show of twentieth and twenty-first-century photo­graphy initiated by the Sprengel Museum Hannover. The Museum für Photo­gra­phie in Braun­schweig is also accom­panying this project with its own exhibition.

Curator: Dr. Andreas Beitin

Curato­rial Assistants: Dino Steinhof