Steven Love Menendez is an award-winning New York based portrait photographer with a focus on the fine art figurative nude. His decades of work as an Art Director and Fashion Editor and vast experience working on photography sets facilitate his work with the fine art medium. Steven's fine art has been featured at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in New York City. He was awarded World’s Top 10 Black and White Photographers in the 2019 by One Eye Land and World’s Top 10 Fine Art Photographers in 2021 by One Eye Land. He was the category winner of the Dance photography of the NUDE 2021 PhotoShoot awards. He was awarded the Presidents Medal at the Cherry Grove Arts Project show in 2018. Menendez's sought after photographs have been included in The Advocate, Gay Letter, Out Magazine and the Queer Review. He has had solo exhibitions in New York City, Fire Island, Provincetown and Miami.
Steven's unrelenting and consistent activism in the LGBTQ+ Community for over 20 years manifests through the idea that Peace, Love and Beauty are the most needed form of protest. In 2017, Steven created the annual 250 Rainbow Flag Installation at the Stonewall National Monument now in its 8th year. In 2019 Steven was pivotal in getting the first permanent Rainbow flag installed at the Stonewall National Monument. He petitioned for the first permitted Drag Shows at a National Monument. His activism has been the focus of worldwide media attention for his tireless efforts to elevate the profile of the LGBTQ + Community.
A student of mysticism, spirituality and philosophy for over 30 years, Steven is inspired by the figurative nude in the art of antiquity. Menendez's meticulous mastery of blending the classical nude in nature and timeless settings transports the observer into a realm of mystical beauty.
Steven glorifies the beauty of the human form and reveal insights into our innermost and deepest selves. He believes that nature is where it is easiest to receive input from the spiritual plane and feels that clothing acts as a barrier that keeps us tied to mundane society and all the restrictions it represents. Steven feels in nature all our garments and masks become superfluous as we connect to our Oneness with the Universe.