Born and raised in Jersey City, Julius Frazer has been quietly making a name for himself where fashion and art intersect.
As a photographer, Frazer’s work appears in a group show over in New York City’s South Seaport district, and he’s made imagery for Converse and Union LA’s Shoe in a collaboration with artist Sheila Bridges.
The 28-year-old has also appeared on the runway during Fashion Week as a model, in addition to photographing and modeling for a fashion cover story about self-reflection, authorship, and identity for RAIN Magazine.
The idea of authorship, of being able to show People of Color in ways that are still uncommon on the level of commercial art/fashion, is a big theme in Frazer’s work.
Frazer spoke with The Jersey Journal about how he found himself continuing to build a sustainable life in the arts.
“I think the longer I’ve used the camera the more I’ve realized it can be a tool for self-expression,” Frazer said. “I also didn’t realize that you could be a fashion photographer.”
Frazer wouldn’t call himself a fashion photographer, in fact. He considers himself a storyteller who’s utilizes the medium he’s best at.
“I love fashion, I love runways, I love that clothing can tell a story, but then at the same time I just like to tell stories in general. I think I realized I couldn’t really express myself in any other way. I’m not a really strong writer. I can’t paint. There’s just so many things I cannot do that I realized that (using) a camera was a really fun way to express myself, and I just happened to be kind of good at it. I’ve been using a camera for over a decade – it’s been over a decade since I picked up a camera and started photographing my friends and just continued to use it.”
One of the most striking features of Frazer’s work is his commitment to showing people of color in a different light.
“I think representation is central to power,” Frazer said. “The way people are represented is very important. And I still think that even in the year 2021 there’s just so many ways that we haven’t seen Black and Brown people just in so many areas. … I just think that there’s so many ways that I haven’t seen people that look like me or think like me represented. I want to fill those spaces. I just think it’s important for people to see themselves as sort of like everyday people.”
Frazer said he was recently helping out doing some writing with some advertising work for a company that’s recognizable and realized something.
“Growing up I never saw myself in these ads. I would look at these ads and it just seemed like a whole another world, like I could never see myself in them. Now I go to try to make these images (so) someone who looks like me can see these and see themselves and be inspired in some other way.”
Being from Jersey City has largely been a boon to the path Frazer is now on, but the city’s unique dynamic hasn’t been without its challenges.
“Jersey City is just such an interesting place, I think, because of its proximity to New York,” Frazer said. “You’re basically 20 minutes outside one of the biggest cities on this side of the globe, but it’s easy to get caught up and just never leave Jersey City. ... I also went to a public high school. I didn’t really have like a photo program. There was no dark room. I had to seek out what I needed from the internet and I took community education courses.”
Even though he didn’t get much initial help in furthering his artistic interests, Frazer doesn’t think the educational opportunities he was able to piecemeal here would have been as easy in other places around the country.
“Also, I’m not really into the Jersey City art scene, and I don’t really know what’s happening (with it) and I never did, so it was very much another world for me. I just find it to be such an interesting place, especially being born and raised here. It’s such a big city, but I feel like sometimes nothing goes on there, especially in the arts – it’s really strange to me.”
Frazer laments that impression because he thinks art is important as a way to broaden your horizons. In his own life, he’s frequently changing his own, literally. He’ll be going to LA for a while as of Sunday.
“... I do tend to hop back and forth. I have friends here, I have friends there, and just try to meet as many new people as I can. … I feel like that’s what keeps your life really rich, you know, being super rich in experience.”
Being able to make a living off art has been a surprise for Frazer, who initially did it as much for fun as anything else. In order to make a living from it, Frazer has had to take an unbeaten path.
“You have go into the unknown and do things that normal people wouldn’t do. You know, for a while there my family didn’t really understand what was going on with me. I kind of dropped out of art school like a year and a half in, worked completely freelance, setting up my photo studio and I did a bunch of other things, but for a minute there … they were very concerned with what was going on with me and my life. And it kind of took a while.”
“For people who don’t come from privilege, where do you get the money?” Frazer said. ‘I have friends who have finished art school and they’re in debt. The amount of debt that they’ve incurred is like they could have bought a house and been living in it,. Now you’re $100K in debt, you don’t really know if you’re going to be able to pay that off, because a job in the arts is not one that’s going to be making you a ton of money. You have to build this network – it’s all about networks, which is really crazy.
“I still walk into a room where I feel like I shouldn’t be there like almost, even in 2021, I still walk into rooms where I’m like the only Black person, and it’s really mind-boggling to me,” Frazer said.
That dynamic, however, gives Frazer a sense of purpose about his work, and it extends beyond himself.
“(It’s) why I try to open the door for other people who are coming from similar situations. Even my friends, someone who wants to do photo stuff, someone who wants to do lighting, I try to like them teach or put them on the jobs and you know, I have a thing where someone opened the door for me I have to open the door for someone else and that person does it for someone else and that person does it for someone else and it’s like, I just think equally as important to me as taking photos. It’s like opening the door for other people around me.
“It’s really interesting, especially navigating this industry without a BFA or an MFA. Just kind of being out here.”
Learn more about Frazer at https://www.juliusfrazer.com/.