The Gordon Parks Foundation in Pleasantville, New York, and the German publisher Steidl, which is based in Göttingen, have announced the launch of a new prize for artists whose practices reflect and extend Gordon Parks’s legacy of using photography as a tool to advance social justice. LaToya Ruby Frazier has been named the prize’s inaugural recipient. She will be given the opportunity to publish a book with Steidl in 2021.

“Gordon Parks’s vision and actions as a photographer, composer, filmmaker, and writer have taught me to fight for humanity, empathy, justice, and integrity in all of my photographs,” Frazier said in statement. “His everlasting endurance to unveil the power of visual storytelling on his own terms, in the face of bigotry, violence, and institutional inequality, teach me to create works of art that lift the voice and visibility of the people in ways that triumph over systemic and structural abuse in America.”

The foundation also revealed that a new library featuring more than three thousand art and photography books, including rare and out-of-print editions by artists such as Berenice Abbott, William Eggleston, Robert Frank, Karl Lagerfeld, and Dayanita Singh, will soon open at its headquarters. The Steidl Library is an extension of the organizations’ nearly decade-long partnership. Together, they have published eleven books, including the recently released Gordon Parks x Muhammad Ali (2019).