Women

Stephen’s ongoing project, Women (2025), depicts women wearing antique, handmade theatrical costumes, in incongruous settings. These women pose facing the camera, often deadpan, commenting on the ways in which women are expected to perform at all times. For example, in the photograph, Nursing Home, a woman wearing a 1940s Hawaiian costume is posed holding her breasts against a bleak background, reducing her to a mannequin-like form. This project revolves around the artist’s intimate relationships with her models, ultimately allowing Stephen to abstract her relationship with herself. By directing others to perform stylized versions of femininity, versions she herself has internalized, Stephen gains critical distance from her own image. The models become both stand-ins and collaborators, enabling her to examine the roles she has occupied without directly placing herself in front of the lens. Through this mediated process, she dissects the emotional, cultural, and psychological layers of her identity, refracted through the bodies of others.