“It's a sense of discovery that I think, for me, is one of the joys that I have as an artist and as a human being. This idea of looking at something and discovering something and that's what I hope for. It's a celebration of beauty and our world, in a way, and I hope that through that celebration that it becomes an entry point emotionally. I'm hoping for people to look at the world, see all the good beauty that we have, and also recognize at the same time how fragile it is.”
Since opening his studio in New York City in 1983, photographer Stephen Wilkes has built an unprecedented body of work and a reputation as one of America’s most iconic photographers, widely recognized for his fine art, editorial and commercial work. Wilkes’ early career interpretations of Mainland China, California’s Highway One, and impressionistic “Burned Objects” set the tone for a series of career-defining projects that catapulted him to the top of the photographic landscape.
Day to Night, Wilkes’ most defining project, began in 2009. These epic cityscapes and landscapes, portrayed from a fixed camera angle for up to 30 hours capture fleeting moments of humanity as light passes in front of his lens over the course of full day. Day to Night has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning as well as dozens of other prominent media outlets and, with a grant from the National Geographic Society, was recently extended to include America’s National Parks in celebration of their centennial anniversary.