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.
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, Driftless, was awarded the Center for Documentary Studies/Honickman First Book Prize and was published in 2007. After completing the book, Frazier directed and co-produced with MediaStorm a documentary that confronts issues highlighted by his photographs.
Frazier’s photographs have been included in numerous books including: MVP (The Millennium Villages Project), de.Mo design Ltd. November 2016, Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff with the essay, Evidence Detroit, by Danny Wilcox Frazier, The Penguin Press, February 2013, War Is Only Half The Story, Vol. IV, The Aftermath Project, January 2012, burn.02, burn inc, September 2011, and Land – Country Life in the Urban Age (catalogue), Noorderlicht, October 2010.
Frazier is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships including: Aaron Siskind Foundation, Individual Photographer’s Fellowship (2016), Emergency Fund, Magnum Foundation (2016), The Aftermath Project (2009), Humanities Iowa, an affiliate of the NEH (2009), W. Eugene Smith Grant finalist (2007 and 2008), and the Stanley Fellowship for Graduate Research Abroad (2003).
