Based in Los Angeles, I work around themes of memory, gender, and process. The fixation with texture comes from years of building tiny Jenga dessert towers as a pastry chef in Michelin restaurants and hotels across the US. Now, I document what lies beyond the food porn feed: the people, landscape, and possibility. I’ve contributed to The Los Angeles Times, Gastronomica, Noice, F-Stop, and Midnite Snack.

The future organizes our memories, not the past. This idea from psychoanalyst Néstor Braunstein spills into all of my work. He says that what a person becomes is the cause, not the result of memory. This helps me understand my process as much as how to represent others.

I am a ballet fanatic and would never say no to a green tamale.


+1 202 340 6555
jess.stephens@gmail.com