Queens-based image-maker and visual artist Laila Annmarie Stevens (b. 2001) personal project 'A House is Not A Home' explores the linguistic meanings of home from New York's LGBTQ+ youth, through visually intimate portraiture.
This relationship between home and true community has deeper responses that belong to a framework of historical, cultural, and ideological narratives brought through personal life experiences. As a queer person herself developing an understanding of humans' purest form, Stevens says "A Home is not where you are, but the people who allow your freest self to live." She allows for a photographic safe-space by envisioning a world of inclusion and power for everyone.
