LaToya Ruby Frazier: Flint is Family Act III
As part of the Triennial of Photography Hamburg, the Kunstverein in Hamburg presents Flint is Family, Act III by LaToya Ruby Frazier (*1982), the final part in a series of photographs documenting the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, which started in 2014 and continues until today. Through capturing the stories of Flint residents, Frazier shows how industrial and governmental neglect toward the sanctity of the city’s water supply had an immediate impact on community members’ lives. In this final act, Frazier shows how Shea Cobb, Amber Hasan, and herself—three African American women from working class backgrounds—were at the helm of bringing resources and care to a community under attack.
Flint is Family began when Frazier travelled to Flint, Michigan in 2016, commissioned by Elle magazine to document the water crisis resultant from lead contamination from the city’s infrastructure and its effects on the community. While in Flint, she met with poet, activist and mother Shea Cobb who would collaborate with her for five years, documenting the stories of Flint residents while working on initiating tangible solutions for providing clean and safe drinking water. What resulted is a series of photographs organized in three acts that follow Cobb in her fight for her family and community’s health and wellbeing, imaging her family’s personal negotiation with their environment, and documenting the personal costs of corporate and governmental irresponsibility.
Kunstverein in Hamburg, Klosterwall 23, 20095 Hamburg
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