LaToya Ruby Frazier on Lee Friedlander’s Ohio Factory Valley Series

In the online edition of MoMA’s ArtSpeaks program, we invite staff members, artists, and special guests to share personal impressions of an artwork in the collection. Here, photographer and activist LaToya Ruby Frazier’s impassioned reflection centers on Lee Friedlander’s Ohio Factory Valley series, which highlights the legacy and contributions of Black working women in America’s Rust Belt. For Frazier, these images, which document these women’s longstanding role in the US workforce, provide “visual healing.” She invites us to explore the thoughtfulness of Friedlander’s photographs, where we find traces of influence on Frazier’s own practice and her approach to photography as a visual storytelling and social-justice device.

View full video at moma.org