Danny Wilcox Frazier

7:07 Danny Wilcox Frazier Presentation: Foundry 2022 Danny Wilcox Frazier discusses how his approach to photography is partially inspired by the photographer and photo critic Hervé Guibert, particularly Guibert’s emphasis that photographers should feel a closeness to the stories they tell. Documentary photographer and filmmaker Danny Wilcox Frazier focuses his work on marginalized communities both in and outside of the United States. Frazier has photographed people struggling to survive the economic shift that has devastated rural communities throughout America, including in his home state of Iowa. His work acknowledges isolation and neglect while also celebrating perseverance and strength. Frazier is a member of the prestigious VII Photo Agency. With his photographs from Iowa, Frazier documented those individuals continuing to live traditional lives in rural communities across the state, people challenged economically but often unwavering in their conviction to stay. The project was awarded the Center for Documentary Studies/Honickman First Book Prize and was published in 2007. His photographs are in public and private collections, including: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Philadelphia Museum of Art, George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, Duke University’s special collections library, Honickman Foundation, and Smithsonian, National Museum of American History. Foundry Photojournalism Workshop provides majority world students who could not otherwise afford it, a chance to learn from some of the world's most well-respected photojournalists and photography professionals. During the pandemic, PhotoWings will partner with the VII Academy to offer an online version of the Workshop. PhotoWings 1:49:57 Continuing Education Series: “USA 3.0” with Danny Wilcox Frazier, Adriana Zehbrauskas and Brooklynn Kascel Danny Wilcox Frazier, Adriana Zehbrauskas, contributing photographers to The VII Foundation, and VII Community member Brooklyn Kascel discussed USA 3.0 — a collaborative book and exhibition documenting America during a period of political and cultural transformation. The event explored the cross-generational collaboration between established photojournalists and emerging visual storytellers. PhotoWings 1:13:32 Four Questions on Photography - Ilvy Njiokiktjien in Conversation With…Danny Wilcox Frazier “Four Questions on Photography: Ilvy Njiokiktjien in Conversation With…” is a series of events where well-known photographers discuss with Ilvy their response to the four questions below. – What is your most important photograph, how did you make it, and what impact do you think it had? – What is your biggest photo failure; an image you wanted or needed but you messed up somehow? – What is your dream image or story? – What advice would you give to your younger self? In this episode, Ilvy is in conversation with Danny Wilcox Frazier. PhotoWings 1:08:27 Driftless with Danny Wilcox Frazier Danny Wilcox Frazier joined Ziyah Gafic in conversation for a VII Insider Book Club discussion of Driftless. Danny was joined by special guest Gabriel Stutzman, one of the book’s subjects. This recording will be available here until February 6 to Freemium VII Insider subscribers. After that, it will be available to Premium subscribers along with all other VII Insider resources. In Driftless, Danny Wilcox Frazier’s dramatic black-and-white photographs portray a changing Midwest of vanishing towns and transformed landscapes. As rural economies fail, people and resources are migrating to the coasts and cities, as though the heart of America were being emptied. Frazier’s arresting photographs take us into Iowa’s abandoned places and illuminate the lives of those people who stay behind and continue to live there: young people at leisure, fishermen on the Mississippi, veterans on Memorial Day, Amish women playing cards, as well as more recent arrivals, Lubavitcher Hasidic Jews at prayer and Latinos at work in the fields. Frazier’s camera finds these newcomers while it also captures activities that seemingly have gone on forever: harvesting and hunting, celebrating and socializing, praying and surviving. Poetic and dark but illuminated with flashes of insight, this collection of photographs is a portrait of contemporary rural Iowa, but it is also more than that. It shows what is happening in many rural and out-of-the-way communities all over the United States, where people find ways to get by in the wake of closing factories and the demise of family farms. Taken by a true insider who has lived in Iowa his entire life, Frazier’s photographs are rich in emotion and give expression to the hopes and desires of the people who remain, whose needs and wants are complicated by the economic realities remaking rural America. – Alexa Dilworth, Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University PhotoWings 1:15:40 One Camera, One Lens and Natural Light The Complexity of Simplicity with Danny Wilcox Frazier This technical webinar looks at how to focus on ‘less is more’; stripping down to the minimum and responding to light, moment, and composition that stays true to the life living out before you. When starting Driftless I had just entered grad school and was sick of the digital revolution and how photography was becoming more about technology than storytelling. Conversations in the industry and academia at the time seemed to lose sight of what I think photography does best, address social issues with a direct and compassionate visual voice. Life's love and pain...economics, politics, war, pollution, disease; all the issues impacting communities the world over and needing to be witnessed. Documentary was taking on new forms and approaches at the time, while some practiced with devotion to tradition; women and men producing impactful work like those Cornell Capa called, "concerned photographers.” The industry, generally speaking, seemed more focused on more lucrative commercial concerns like megapixel wars and social media clicks. With those mind-numbing debates behind me and entering a space meant for personal and professional exploration, my approach in Driftless was to strip away all photographic concerns, to work with the simplest tools, and focus intensely on all I heard, saw, and felt. For this talk, I want to bring people into the simple idea of putting their subjects before all else. To cherish the opportunity to learn firsthand about those we photograph and the issues surrounding our interactions and collaborations with them. To put aside gear, deadlines, Instagram, and anything else that gets in the way and focus on living with the story. PhotoWings 56:35 A Picture of America: Privilege, Race & The Era of Trump Presented in partnership with with Leica Saturday, September 16, 2017 Featuring: Sheila Pree Bright, Danny Wilcox Frazier Explore the lives of individuals and communities that are often unseen, through the perspective of renowned photographers Sheila Pree Bright and Danny Wilcox Frazier. Bright and Frazier create visual, contemporary stories about social, political and historical contexts not often seen in the visual communication of traditional media and fine art platforms about divided communities. Their work captures and presents aspects of culture, and sometimes counter-culture, that challenge what we see and how we see it. PHOTOVILLE TALKS Produced by United Photo Industries at Photoville 2017 Presented in partnership with PhotoWings Hosted by St. Ann’s Warehouse with additional support by Two Trees Management (Photoville Talks Producer - Amy Wolff) PANELIST BIO Sheila Pree Bright is an acclaimed fine-art photographer known for her photographic series Young Americans, Plastic Bodies, and Suburbia. She received national attention shortly after earning her M.F.A. in Photography from Georgia State University, and describe herself in the art world as a visual cultural producer portraying large-scale works that combine a wide-range of contemporary culture. Bright’s most ambitious project to date, #1960Now, examines race, gender, and generational divides to raise awareness of millennial perspectives on civil and human rights. She is the recipient of a proclamation from the city council of Atlanta, naming September 25th Sheila Pree Bright Day. Documentary photographer and filmmaker, Danny Wilcox Frazier focuses his work on marginalized communities both in and outside of the United States. Frazier has photographed people struggling to survive the economic shift that has devastated rural communities throughout America, including in his home state of Iowa. His work acknowledges isolation and neglect while also celebrating perseverance and strength. Frazier is a member of VII. PhotoWings