By Dr. Jessie Fields
From the family, from the town, from the people abandoned came
A daughter heritage sure of Ruby eyes.
She grew steeped in art to uncover lives long pressed under heels of steel and set her shutter to wide public view those generations who bore the mill’s furnace.
Still the children see gritty skies in sight and bare rage broken and rising
in too familiar rooms.
Mother and daughter, before and behind the camera, drew each other the length to unfold free.
Our lives of poor and working people we see and find wielding by the light of her lens power to make the present.
~Dr. Jessie Fields is a physician practising in Harlem, a leader in the New York City Independence Clubs, and a board member of the All Stars Project and Open Primaries.
Our December 6th conversation with LaToya Ruby Frazier on her photobook, The Notion Of Family will be posted soon.
Jessie, That is really beautiful.