The photographs created by D Stevens have taken him around the world many times over: from war-torn Beirut to the tension-filled streets of Belfast to the drought-plagued faces of Haiti. His Leica cameras have captured the moment of birth of a ‘crack baby' in a South Los Angeles hospital and the masked faces of KKK members during a cross burning.
For three decades, Stevens' powerful imagery has propelled him to expand boundaries as a communicator, documenting indicators of our times. Inspired by W. Eugene Smith, Margaret Bourke-White, Lewis Hines, Cartier-Bresson and many others, Stevens has dedicated his life to bringing reflections of honesty in the human spirit.
As a photojournalist, he feels honored to have been exhibited with the likes of Bernice Abott, Walker Evans, Dorthea Lange, Alfred Stieglitz and Gordon Parks and represented by the G Ray Hawkins Gallery. For news assignments Stevens is represented by both ZUMA Press (US) and SIPA Press (Paris). His work has garnered international recognitions and awards including the Foreign Press Club for Newsweek International coverage in Belfast and Images of the Year Selection for the Time Magazine cover story entitled ‘Kids Who Sell Crack.'
In 2000, he was asked to illustrate the book ‘Prison Life' written by Stanley ‘Tookie' Williams and Barbara Becnel. Mr. Williams, co-founder of the Crips gang, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001 largely because his book has deterred thousands of youths from following his gangster lifestyle. Mr. Williams was executed at San Quentin on December 13 2005.
As a advertising key art photographer, Stevens has photographed over forty movie posters. His clients include Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, HBO, New Line Cinema, Disney, 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight, Miramax, CIBY 2000, etc. He has been a unit stills photographer on over twenty five feature films since his first movie "Boyz N The Hood" in 1991. Others have included "What's Love Got to Do With It?", "Menace II Society", "White Men Can't Jump", "Devil In A Blue Dress", "Tuskegee Airmen", "Truman", "Set It Off", "Biker Boyz", etc.
Stevens received the prestigious Hollywood Reporter "Key Art Award" as photographer for the Best Drama Poster 2001 for "Love and Basketball". He received ABET's (Alliance of Black Entertainment Technicians) ‘Pioneer Trophy' in 2000 and has won the Southern California News Directors ‘Golden Mike' Trophy for a documentary he produced on Soledad Prison.
Stevens has received numerous recognitions from professional societies and official congratulations from local and state government as well from the U.S. Senate. Numerous articles, interviews and mini-documentaries have been done on Stevens' work. He has been exhibited in well over two hundred galleries around the world.. He has been a member of National Press Photographers Association, Overseas Press Club, Society of Professional Journalist, ASMP, IATSE, and Editorial Photographers.
Stevens has directed numerous documentaries and his first feature film was released in December 2006 entitled "The Pet". He is a contributing photographer to ZUMA Press Agency. In 2007 he was part of the exhibit "Intersections" at the California Afro American Museum. Stevens' work has been exhibited worldwide well over two hundred times. He has had numerous one-man shows including Paris, France and at the Cannes Film Festival sponsored in part by Leica USA.He was part of the book and world exhibition project by Time-Warner - SITES (Smithonian Insitution Traveling Exhibit Service). entitled "Songs of My People".
Stevens was raised in Compton, California and educated at UCLA and Columbia Graduate School of Journalism-Television Insitute. He has lived for seven years in London and three years in New York. Since 1990 he has been commuting between Paris and Santa Monica, California.
He is presently developing Delta Blues Soul - a historical feature movie and book project about the blues in addition to scriptwriting and directing a comedy about exercise in American entitled SLAVERSIZE. There is a definite theme in projects undertaken by Stevens that relate to the history and implications of human interactions and the power exchange between those with power and those who may not realize how that dynamics affects them in a myriad of different scenarios.