LaToya Ruby Frazier, American Witness https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/01/t-magazine/latoya-ruby-frazier-photography.html LaToya Ruby Frazier, American Witness A marriage of art and activism, the artist’s searing photographs reveal the human toll of economic injustice. LaToya Ruby Frazier in her Chicago studio, photographed on Dec. 28, 2020.Credit...Naima Green By Zoë Lescaze Published March 1, 2021Updated March 4, 2021 WHEN GENERAL MOTORS announced plans to slash its domestic work force in 2018, company stock soared 5 percent. LaToya Ruby Frazier, a Chicago-based artist whose photographs and videos champion unsung members of the working class, was furious. She decided to embark upon a new series devoted to the autoworkers who were contending with the possible loss of their plant in Lordstown, Ohio; they would be the subject of an upcoming exhibition and a published photo essay. But before any of that could happen, the workers had to agree to let her into their lives. Frazier traveled to their union hall and sat in the foyer as the members filed in for a big meeting that would begin with a vote on her. She was both astonished by their diversity — they were young and old, Black and white, male and female — and aware that she wasn’t necessarily welcome. “As a Black woman, I know what it feels like when someone’s eyes rest on me in a hostile way,” she said. “And I think they have a right to do that. ... You’re being told awful news that is going to destroy your livelihood, your income, your family, your community. These people were not in a good mood when I got there.” The doors closed and Frazier waited, heart pounding, while Local 1112 of the United Auto Workers union decided whether to grant her unprecedented access.