D. Stevens
Biography
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 Abbott, Walker Evans, Dorothea 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 recognition 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 gangs
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ter lifestyle. Mr. Williams was executed at San Quentin on December 13 2005.
As a advertising key art photographer, Stevens has photographed over four hundred movie posters. His clients include Columbia Pictures, Sony SPE, Warner Brothers, Imagine Entertainment, Universal Pictures, Screen Gems, HBO, New Line Cinema, Disney, 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight, Miramax, CIBY 2000, etc. He has been a unit/set stills photographer on over sixty 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", Chadwick Boseman's breakout movies of '42 and "Get On Up," 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 recognition 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 and attended by Nelson Mandela. He was part of the book and world exhibition project by Time-Warner - SITES (Smithsonian Institution 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 Institute. 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 a number of film projects from documentaries to streaming movies and series.
Part of D Stevens photographic archives are at is the Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. This special collection is comprised of more than 30,000 images representing still photography for dozens of films, editorial essays and special projects.
In the role of actor
I Am Thor (30/07/2015)
1980s rock god Jon Mikl Thor attempts a comeback in I Am Thor. Beginning his career as a Canadian bodybuilder in the 1970s, Jon Mikl Thor formed the heavy metal band Thor and released over a dozen albums and appeared in 1980s horror films, such as Rock ‘n’ Roll Nightmare and Zombie Nightmare. Thor decided to retire from […]