Bio
Stephen Iliffe is a deaf photographer. His intimate portraits and stories celebrate Britain’s deaf community.
Stephen’s Deaf Mosaic project features over 120 portraits that challenge the general public with an urgent message: It is not deafness that disables people but the barriers in hearing society that often frustrates our dreams.
“When I grew up in Leicester, I was the only deaf kid at school,” says Stephen. “So, I had no deaf role models to look up to and get a sense of how to navigate life.”
“This is what fuels my desire today to tell deaf people’s stories and reach out to the widest possible audiences.”
“After I graduated from De Montfort University with a degree in photography, I applied for over 50 jobs and didn't get a single interview.”.
“‘Your photography is great, but we can't employ someone who's unable to use a telephone,’ was one of the many excuses they gave. This was back in the 1980s (before the Equalities Act), when it was still perfectly legal to discriminate against someone purely on the grounds of their diasability.”
“It was shattering to have so many doors slammed in my face. I gave up on the idea of photography as a career.”
“Fast forward 40 years later, in 2020 after a long career working for charities, I took the risk to leave a secure office job and go back to my first love of photography. I had unfinished business.”
“I have a mission. Photography was invented in the 1830s, around the same time as the British deaf community began to emerge. And yet, in nearly 200 years since, deaf people remain almost invisible in the photography canon - museums, galleries, collections, archives, book and journals.”
“My Deaf Mosaic project is changing this. It has hosted 19 exhibitions at high-profile arts venues – such as London South Bank’s OXO Gallery – alongside pop-up events in hospitals, schools and community centres.”
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In 2023, Deaf Mosaic exhibited for four weeks at Europe’s largest outdoor gallery at London’s Kings Cross Coal Drops Yard, seen by over a million people.
Stephen’s portrait of Lawand Hamadamin was shown at the world-famous National Portrait Gallery.
Stephen’s work has a global appeal. The Deaf Mosaic online gallery has enjoyed over 66,000 visitors from 148 countries.
He has also collaborated with the deaf communities in Barbados and Uzbekistan.
Stephen’s work has been awarded a distinction by the Royal Society of Photography.
Stephen is dynamic public speaker. He has appeared on BBC News and Sky News, and given 38 talks to influential bodies – such as the House of Commons, the Royal Collection and Francis Crick Institute.