Laila Annmarie Stevens
Laila Annmarie Stevens (b. 2001) is a Black Queer Photographer and Visual Artist from South Jamaica Queens, NY, now based in Brooklyn. She holds a BFA in Photography and Related Media from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Stevens' work, which redefines traditional family structures through community kinship, has been featured in The New York Times, National Geographic, The Nation, and The Guardian. A 2023 Magnum Foundation Fellow and 2024 Aperture Portfolio Prize Shortlisted Artist, she has also held teaching positions at The Studio Museum in Harlem and the Guggenheim Museum.
[Cosmic Joy | ZAMI, March 2023, Photograph]
Laila Annmarie Stevens
Courtesy of the artist
Taj-Levi and Sam smile towards each other in the kitchen of a Bronx apartment. They tell each other jokes and body languages evoke the vibrations of love and joy.
[Stevens Family Portrait | Clayton Sisterhood Project, August 2021, Photograph]
Laila Annmarie Stevens
Courtesy of the artist
Janice Reynolds, 74, one of the oldest living descendants of the Stevens family, gathers in the driveway of her and my father, Lasalle Stevens’s childhood home in South Jamaica, Queens, New York. She is surrounded by younger generations of women in the family, who call her “Grandma Janice.” By using this name, she invokes the ancestral spirit and role of her mother.