Free Artist Talk with LaToya Ruby Frazier

Each day, we’re bombarded by images: on billboards, on screens, in schools and in our bedrooms. And these images, largely corporate in origin, carry power—power to shape, control, and constrain—even when they offer a fantasy, or an outright lie.

That’s why, as LaToya Ruby Frazier (whose work is on view in "Flint is Family" at the Newcomb Art Museum) argues, photography is a battleground of representation. We cannot control the material circumstances of our birth, our families or our economic circumstances. But in order to change society—to seed real change and cultural transformation, especially for the marginalized and the forgotten—we must change the picture we have of ourselves and our communities.

In "Art as Transformation: Using Photography for Social Change," a free artist talk at Newcomb Art Museum, Frazier will discuss how she has used photography to fight injustice—poverty, healthcare and gender inequality, environmental contamination, racism, and more—and created a more representative self-portrait. Drawing from her book The Notion of Family as well as from works of art by Frederick Douglass, August Sander, Julia Margaret Cameron, and Langston Hughes, she will relate her conscious approach to photography, open up more authentic ways to talk about family, inheritance, and place, and celebrate the inspirational, transformative power of images.

Join the Newcomb Art Museum in Freeman Auditorium for a unique chance to hear from artist and activist LaToya Ruby Frazier as she discusses how she has used photography to fight injustice—poverty, healthcare and gender inequality, environmental contamination, racism, and more—and create a more representative self-portrait. The museum will remain open late and host a free reception following the talk. 6 pm–8 pm. Free and open to the public. newcombartmuseum.tulane.edu.