‘Young, Gifted and Black’ visual artist shining her lens on Vincy heritage

by Christina Smith

If one were to carve all the accomplishments, accolades and highlights of Denise Stephanie Hewitt’s creative career on the cobblestones of Kingstown streets, chances are you could exhaust the length of Bay Street and still not have enough space to list all.

At just one-score and some change, the Vincentian visual artist and storyteller is accumulating ‘Big Name’ editorial photography features and stamping her name across Brooklyn, New York where she was born and raised.

Hewitt’s Vincentian and Caribbean heritage features heavily in work

Her family claim their origins from Upper Sion Hill, and Kingstown Park and although a Brooklyn baby, Hewitt asserts that her roots spring up from Vincy soil and her art is grounded in the concept of community and family.

It is these influences that guided her creative concept when she was selected to shoot Barneys New York (NY) 2018 campaign. Hewitt told SEARCHLIGHT the look-book was based on the story of her great-grandmother who migrated to NY and laboured until she was eventually able to purchase a Bed-Stuy brownstone. While the look-book was intended to be an advertisement for the fashion collection, Hewitt said she designed the set to share the story of her great-grandmother’s legacy and also the tale that ripples through many Caribbean families.

“I made a whole story about that. I photographed it in the house that she bought when she came up here. And I had my aunt in it as well which is fun. Heritage, lineage and legacy is very, very important to me. I’ve done multiple stories on, and studies of my great grandmother’s house … now I have the opportunity to turn them into images. There’s so much in the images, if you take a look at it you’ll see like images of like family photos in the background that’s not something you’d see, like images of somebody’s baby, somebody’s grandma, Auntie, casually in these spaces.”

Hewitt’s talent was evident to her teachers when she participated in a high-school programme at Red Hook Labs Photography Studio the previous year. It was through this programme that she landed what she describes as her “favourite project” with Barney’s New York.

“… I had some teachers and mentors that believed in me and saw my creative vision and my skill set, who would help pitch me to different opportunities.”

At that time, Denise was only 16 years old and had already added a luxury brand to her portfolio, shot the inaugural edition of More or Less magazine and was also one of five teen photographers who conceptualized and shot players of The Women’s National Basketball Association. All of this after only formally entering the sphere of the visual art world at age 15.

The following year would be a history-making year for Hewitt when she shot the March, 2020 Marie Claire Magazine Cover which featured British actress, Emily Blunt.

History would be written in clicks once again when she was commissioned by Vogue Magazine in September, 2021 to shoot behind the scenes of American athlete, Shacarri Richardson and Olympic-medal gymnast, Simone Biles at the Met Gala.

“It was a lot of excitement and somewhat disbelief, but also it was like a humbling experience where I was like, wow, I can do this.”

It should have come as no surprise then when Hewitt landed in the March, 2023 edition of Essence magazine, the leading media company focusing on Black women, in their ‘Creator’s Class: Young, Gifted and Black’ series.

“It is always a shock to me. I appreciate every moment … these are things that I wouldn’t have thought that I would be a part of, years ago these are things that I would have dreamed about. And now they’re just casually showing up on my phone, showing up in my emails.”

For Denise it has always been a juggle between managing academic responsibilities and conquering the creative space. Now that she is going on to be a rising senior at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts where she studies photography, the “Hannah Montano double life” continues as she balances being an Editorial & Branded Content Intern at a media company along with doing freelance gigs.

She acknowledged the difficulty that comes with pursuing a career in the arts and she shared this tidbit for Vincentian creatives who may be on the fence about walking the artist’s path.

“I would tell them to be strategic about it. You are going to have to juggle a lot to make it happen. Even though I’m doing photography in a creative career, I have a lot of things that I’m also doing on the side to kind of make sure that I have my eggs in multiple baskets. You’re gonna have to skip some parties with friends. You’re gonna have to skip some hanging out, some movies and things like that to make it all work into, you know, invest time into the things that you are passionate about, but it’s so worth it.”