Vanessa Clifton
Vanessa Clifton is a Brooklyn-based Unit Stills and Documentary Photographer with Local 600. She discovered photography in her high school darkroom and went on to study Fine Art at Western Michigan University. After graduating in 2012, she moved to NYC and worked as a photo assistant and studio manager. Vanessa's personal work explores themes of humanity, empathy, and connection, while her professional work focuses on creating images for film publicity and marketing campaigns.
[Mr. Earl, 2022, Photograph]
Vanessa Clifton
Courtesy of the artist
Mr. Earl was created due to my appreciation for our elders. I enjoy seeing our elders still in the community working and being. I see them out early in the morning relaxing, working and being and it gives me such pride. It also makes me think of the rich history that Bedstuy holds and will continue to create.
[Bedstuy, 2019, Photograph]
Vanessa Clifton
Courtesy of the artist
I have been documenting Bedstuy for a few years but wanted to adjust my process by actually engaging with people and not just snapping and passing by. Bedstuy Fly was created using this technique. I approached this couple because their outfits and demeanor absolutely matched the Bedstuy Fly headband on her head. This image also pays homage to the local clothing store Bedstuy Fly which was launched in 2009.
Barnabas Crosby
Barnabas Crosby is a Brooklyn-based educator and visual storyteller, originally from Cleveland. He founded Whiskey Boys Entertainment in 2010, a platform sharing stories of Everyday Black Living through black-and-white stills and films. His work has been exhibited at the Nasdaq Building and the Museum of the City of New York, and published in Fortune and International Business Magazine. He teaches photography at the Harlem School of the Arts and is a staff photographer at Lehman College.
[Rebel A: Groove Commander, 2021, Photograph]
Barnabas Crosby
Courtesy of the artist
Rebel A: Groove Commander (2021) was photographed at the home of artist Asen James and explores how metaphysical and physical spaces are occupied. Known as a DJ in Brooklyn, Asen uses music to shift moods and amplify joy. The image features traditional cultural cloths as adornments, symbolizing various cultures. It also references revolutionary Che Guevara, who wore the same muddy boots while cutting sugar cane with Cubans on Sundays as he did during Monday meetings with international dignitaries.
[Ancient, 2021, Photograph]
Barnabas Crosby
Courtesy of the artist
Ancient (2021) is part of the 2022 series Holding Court, which reimagines Black representation for mainstream audiences. It reflects on the histories of Black imagery in both Africa and the United States. The piece is inspired by painter William Henry Johnson and Steve McCurry’s iconic Afghan Girl (1984) photograph.
Anthony Geathers
Anthony Geathers is a prolific commercial, portrait, and photojournalistic photographer known for his iconic imagery of some of America’s most notable figures. Born in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, he discovered photography in seventh grade and later earned a BFA in Photography and Video from the School of Visual Arts. A former Marine who served two combat deployments in Afghanistan, Geathers draws on his battlefield experience to infuse his work with a powerful narrative of humanity and resilience. His portfolio has been featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and by brands such as Nike and Adidas.
[Untitled, October 14, 2021, Photograph]
Anthony Geathers
Courtesy of the artist
This photograph was made for a commission Commes De Garcons assigned to me, asking to photograph the Nike Foamposite in a fashion sense for Nike. I made the creative decision leading up to the photo shoot to ask Jay Will, a streetball player, who is also Muslim to photograph him for this campaign. I wound up following him in Bed-Stuy, from his house, to his friend's house to the barber shop, using his neighborhood as a backdrop to make photographs like these for Nike/CDG to show Jay Will and how proud he is of who he is and represents.
[Untitled, May 31st, 2020, Photograph]
Anthony Geathers
Courtesy of the artist
This photo brings back so many memories. When we saw what happened to George Floyd in 2020, I knew Brooklyn was going to let the world and NYC know how it felt about George's death, especially with this borough's history between its Black residents and the NYPD. So I took it upon myself to document these massive protests between Bed-Stuy and Flatbush, on foot, with other black photographers in the borough. This photo was made in the Flatbush area where black residents did not care about anything but protesting against the police and I saw everybody in solidarity, from the Bus driver to the gangsters, borough wide.
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.
Kira Joy Williams
Kira Joy Williams (she/they) is an artist, storyteller, and community builder based in Brooklyn, NY, on occupied Munsee Lenape land. She holds a BA and a Master's degree from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Her multimedia artwork has been featured in solo and group exhibitions, including her 2022 thesis show Home is in the Stories in a Bedford Stuyvesant community garden, where she also served as Artist-in-Residence. Kira has co-curated Rest is Power (2023) and Morphology (2022) at NYU, and was a 2023 Create Change Artist-in-Residence with The Laundromat Project.
[Tann and Dad, 2021, 35mm photograph]
Kira Joy Williams
Courtesy of the artist
A father and his adult son hug, the son’s head resting heavily on the father’s shoulder, the father’s hands spread across the son’s back. Sunlight shines through the trees of the backyard in which they stand, illuminating their dark brown skin. The son wears a loose button down shirt and black pants and has a slight smile on his face, and the father, a head shorter, wears a button down shirt and jeans. They are framed by a screen door, partially open to the at once fleeting and everlasting embrace.
[Untitled, 2021, 35mm photograph]
Kira Joy Williams
Courtesy of the artist
Three people dressed in their Sunday best stand in the doorway of a church, the brown wood of the door framing their dark brown faces. The leftmost person, wearing a black pea coat and a face mask under her chin, displays her candy with a laugh, a wide smile revealing a gap in her teeth. The person in the middle is dressed in a gray suit and cradling a paper bag in the crook of his arm as he opens his candy, face mask covering his mouth and eyes, cheeks, and nose poised to begin a smile. The person on the right, displaying a bottle of iced coffee to the camera, wears an intricately patterned coat made of textured fabrics in shades of blues, a blue beaded necklace, blue hat, and a face mask covering her nose and mouth.