Lesson 14 CONTEXT: Engaging the Subject

LaToya Ruby Frazier

LaToya Ruby Frazier (b. 1982, Braddock, ) is known for creating work that centers around social, political, and economic conditions. Most recognized for her work made in her hometown of Braddock, Frazier uses photography as a way to capture the economic crisis that has ensued since the collapse of its steel industry in the 1970s. She received her MFA from the College of Visual and Performing Arts at , New York (2007). Frazier completed the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program (2011) and shortly thereafter was appointed Critic in Photography at the School of Art. Her first photobook,The Notion of Family, was published by Aperture in 2014 and has been widely recognized. She has received numerous grants and awards, including the John S. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellows Grant (2015) and the Guggenheim Fellowship (2014). Her work has been included in exhibitions at major institutions worldwide. Gillian Laub

Gillian Laub (b. 1975, Chappaqua, New York) came to prominence with her New York Times Magazine portraits of teenagers attending a segregated prom in Georgia, which helped spur the town to integrate the event in 2010. She has won numerous awards, including Nikon’s Storyteller Award for her work in the Middle East in 2003, and Aperture’s Emerging Artist Award in 2007, which led to her first monograph,Testimony , published by Aperture with support from the Jerome Foundation. Laub contributes regularly to Magazine and TIME magazine, among many other publications and commissions. She studied photography at the International Center of Photography, New York.