Metropolitan Transportation Authority Arts & Design presents a selection of works from photographer Stephen Wilkes’ “Day to Night” series at Grand Central

 Via Art Daily

December 30, 2023

Central Park, View from Essex House, NYC, Day To Night ™ © Stephen Wilkes. Courtesy MTA Arts & Design.

"Day to Night" explores the circadian rhythms of New York's iconic landmarks and vibrant city life

NEW YORK, NY.- The Metropolitan Transportation Authority Arts & Design is now presenting a selection of works from photographer Stephen Wilkes’ mesmerizing “Day to Night” series at Grand Central Madison. Iconic New York landmarks, including Coney Island, Central Park, Rockefeller Center, and Washington Square, are rendered anew thanks to the artist’s unique approach to photography, creating images of familiar destinations across the Big Apple that span the course of an entire day.

-"This Fragile Earth Day To Night", a special virtual exhibit, is on through January 21, 2024 at monroegallery.com -

“These fascinating photographs showcase New York City at its very finest, reminding residents and tourists alike of our spectacular city’s tremendous vitality and its unique ability to inspire awe, delight, and wonderment,” said Sandra Bloodworth, Director, MTA Arts & Design. “Those passing through Grand Central Madison will immediately recognize several renowned locations created in Stephen Wilkes’ unique image-making style, which captures the essence of a single place from dawn until dark.”

The ongoing “Day to Night” series explores the temporal and circadian rhythms of daily life in landmark locations from around the world. Working from a fixed camera angle, Wilkes takes up to 1,500 images over the course of a day then edits the best moments of the entire day, using time as his guide. These select moments are then digitally blended into a single photograph.

The photos on display at Grand Central Madison were chosen by MTA Arts & Design and the artist to reveal a range of New York City views, including the bustling landscapes of Rockefeller Center during the holidays, Central Park in its colorful fall glory, and Coney Island at the peak of summer. Together, these images serve as a lasting reminder of the energetic environs, both natural and human-made, that make New York City such a lively place to spend time. The exhibition is curated by MTA Arts & Design and generously sponsored by Duggal Visual Solutions with installation support by OUTFRONT Media. The photographs will be on view until Spring 2024.

“It is so special for me to share these New York ‘Day to Night’ images within the stunning Grand Central Madison cultural corridor. New York has always been a source of great inspiration and my ‘Day to Night’ project began as a love letter to New York City. I was drawn to photograph the most iconic locations within the city, views that are part of our collective memory, but seen in a totally different light. I photograph from locations and views that are part of our collective memory,” said Westport, Connecticut-based artist Stephen Wilkes. “I capture what I see, the fleeting moments of humanity and light as time passes. Photographing a single place for up to 36 hours becomes a meditation. It has informed me in a unique way, inspiring deep insights into the narrative story of life, and the fragile interaction of humanity within our natural world.”

Located at the south end of the concourse by the 42nd Street entrance, MTA Arts & Design Photography at Grand Central Madison was inaugurated in 2023. The curated exhibition series is installed in ten large-scale lightboxes and rotated periodically. The Photography initiative is part of the larger Grand Central Madison “cultural corridor,” a new venue for artistic expression curated by MTA Arts & Design. In addition to temporary photography exhibitions, the corridor includes lively permanent mosaic commissions by Yayoi Kusama and Kiki Smith and five large LED screens that display a widerange of temporary digital artworks from the MTA Arts & Design Digital Art Program, an annual open call initiative for digital artists. Taken together, these unique and publicly accessible artistic endeavors are a reminder of the enduring power of public art and its ability to connect people from all walks of life.

STEPHEN WILKES

Stephen Wilkes was born in 1957 in New York. He received his BS in photography from Syracuse University S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications with a minor in business management from the Whitman School of Management in 1980. Wilkes’ extensive awards and honors include the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Magazine Photography, Photographer of the Year from Adweek Magazine, Fine Art Photographer of the Year 2004 Lucie Award, TIME Magazine Top 10 Photographs of 2012, Sony World Photography Professional Award 2012, Adobe Breakthrough Photography Award 2012 and Prix Pictet, Consumption 2014. His photographs are included in the collections of the George Eastman Museum, James A. Michener Art Museum, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Dow Jones Collection, Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation, Jewish Museum of NY, Library of Congress, Snite Museum of Art, The Historic New Orleans Collection, Museum of the City of New York, 9/11 Memorial Museum and numerous private collections. His editorial work has appeared in, and on the covers of leading publications such as the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Time, Fortune, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, and many others.

MTA ARTS & DESIGN MTA

Arts & Design encourages the use of public transportation by providing visual and performing arts in the metropolitan New York area. The Percent for Art program is one of the largest and most diverse collections of site-specific public art in the world, with more than 380 commissions by world-famous, midcareer and emerging artists. Arts & Design produces Graphic Arts, Digital Art, photographic Lightbox exhibitions, as well as live musical performances in stations through its Music Under New York (MUSIC) program, and the Poetry in Motion program in collaboration with the Poetry Society of America. It serves the millions of people who rely upon MTA subways and commuter trains and strives to create meaningful connections between sites, neighborhoods, and people.
MTA

Stephen Wilkes: Visualizing Time

 Via The Westport Library

Stephen Wilkes: Flatiron Building, New York City, Day to Night, 2010

Stephen Wilkes: Visualizing Time, a presentation of Wilkes’s work, in conversation with Stacy Bass on September 8 at 7pm,  in person in the Forum.

Note: The program will be preceded by a reception with the photographer at 6:15. Q&A will follow.

PLEASE REGISTER HERE

This exhibit, which will encompass all 3 of the library’s galleries through 11/29 and will explore how Wilkes' visualization of the concept of time has evolved from the earlier days of his career through his latest series “Day to Night” and “Tapestries.” 

 September 8 - November 29, 2022

The Westport Library

20 Jesup Road

Westport, CT 06880 

View Stepehen Wilkes' photography here

Stephen Wilkes' pictures document effects of climate change

 Via Good Morning America

August 23, 2022

Stephen Wilkes has been photographing national parks for more than 20 years and his newly born granddaughter inspires him to continue bearing witness to how they're affected by climate change.

Stephen Wilkes' Photograph on the Cover of National Geographic "America The Beautiful" Issue

 

Stephen Wilkes photograph of the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah is the cover of  National Geographic's “America the Beautiful” issue. "This photograph of Bears Ears National Monument in Utah is one of four Day to Night’s I created for the September 2022 issue. The spectacular landscape of Bears Ears Monument is a symbol of the risk to some of the country's unique and irreplaceable places. One president preserved it at the urging of Native Americans who hold it sacred, another tried to open it to drilling and mining.

A national monument rich with archaeological sites, it includes the Citadel, once a fortified cliff dwelling, now a popular hiking spot. I took 2,092 photographs over 36 hours and selected 44 for this image. Beyond the sense of awe and beauty, there's a palpable sense of history with every step you take.

Bears Ears was one of the most challenging Day to Nights I have created. After a long day of traveling my team and I hiked out over an hour with several hundred pounds of gear to our shoot location and set up camp for the next three days. Over the duration of our shoot we photographed while battling steady 45 mph winds, and were blessed to be able to capture the sunrise, a full moon and a rare alignment of the planets, Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and Saturn." --Stephen Wilkes

Stephen Wilkes among group of nature photographers joining forces to protect the environment

 

Via CNN

December 2, 2021

Stephen Wilkes - Serengeti Day to Night. For his project "Day to Night," Stephen Wilkes creates images of landscapes photographed from a fixed camera angle for up to 30 hours. Blending these images into a single photograph can take months. Pictured, is Serengeti National Park, Tanzania.   ©,Stephen Wilkes

View slide show here

The final moments before the death of the last male northern white rhino, a 66-year-old elephant swimming in the ocean, and renowned primatologist Jane Goodall searching for chimpanzees in Tanzania in the early 1960s; these are all moments captured in a collection of powerful photographs that have been donated to raise funds for conservation projects.

Works by 100 photographers from around the world will be sold until the end of the year by Vital Impacts, a non-profit that provides financial support to community-orientated conservation organizations and amplifies the work of photographers who are raising awareness of their efforts. Contributing is a who's who of nature photography, including Paul Nicklen, Ami Vitale, Jimmy Chin, Chris Burkard, Nick Brandt, Beth Moon, Stephen Wilkes and Goodall herself.

"Each image has a really profound story behind it," said Vitale, an award-winning photographer and co-founder of Vital Impacts. "I worked really hard when I was curating this to make sure that these photographers are diverse, but the one thing they all share is this commitment to the planet. They're using their art to help conservation."

'An inspiration to the world'

Goodall's photograph of herself, sitting with a telescope on a high peak in Gombe, Tanzania, was taken around 1962 using a camera that she fastened to a tree branch. "I was pretty proud of myself. I love that picture," said Goodall in a video message for Vital Impacts. All the proceeds from her self-portrait will go to supporting her Roots & Shoots program, which educates young people and empowers them to care for the world.

Jane Goodall's "Self Portrait," from the early 1960s, in Tanzania. Credit: ©,Jane Goodall

"It's breathtaking work," said Vitale, who only found out that Goodall was a photographer after reaching out to her about supporting the program. "She's been such an inspiration to the world. This one woman has had such an impact for the betterment of the planet."

Vital Impacts has tried to make the print sale carbon neutral by planting trees for every print that is made. Sixty per cent of profits from the sale will be divided between four groups involved in wildlife or habitat protection: Big Life Foundation, Great Plains Foundation's Project Ranger, Jane Goodall Institute's Roots & Shoots program, and SeaLegacy. The remaining 40% will go to the photographers to help them continue their work.

'Our shared life raft'

Vitale was a conflict photographer for a decade before becoming a wildlife photographer. She hopes that people will be "inspired by all of this work" and that the photographs make people "fall in love" with our "magnificent planet."

"The planet is our shared life raft and we've poked some holes in it, but it's not too late," added Vitale. "We can all do little acts that can have profound impacts. That's kind of why I named it 'Vital Impacts,' because I think very often we are all so disconnected and don't realize how we are interconnected. Everything we do impacts one another and shapes this world."

One of her photographs in the print sale, "Goodbye Sudan," shows Sudan, the last male northern white rhino, being comforted by one of his keepers, Joseph Wachira, at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in northern Kenya moments before the rhino's death in March 2018. Now, two females are all that remains of this species.

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"Goodbye Sudan" by Ami Vitale shows the moments before the death of the last male northern white rhino in 2018. Credit:© Ami Vitale

"It's such an important story to me because it made me realize that watching these animals go extinct is actually like watching our own demise in slow motion, knowing that it's going to impact humanity," said Vitale.

"It's so deeply interwoven. That's what led me down this path and now I really try to find these stories which show us a way forward, where people are learning how to coexist and protect wildlife and the habitats that we all share."

"The epic COVID-19 memorial on the National Mall, in one stunning photo"

 

Stephen Wilkes: “In America: Remember”, Day to Night, National Mall, Washington, DC, 2021

Via National Geographic

September 30, 2021

4,882 photos taken over 30 hours. More than 670,000 flags representing American lives lost. An incalculable measure of grief.

For more than 30 hours, photographer and National Geographic Explorer Stephen Wilkes watched people move through the sea of white flags below him on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. He saw young children bend down curiously to examine the small flags, and cyclists lay down their bikes to take in the 20-acre expanse of them. He saw skateboarders roll through, selfie-takers frame shots—and passersby slowly realize that each flag represents a life lost to COVID-19.

On September 18 and 19, starting before sunrise and finishing after sunset, Wilkes took 4,882 photographs of the art installation In America: Remember, an exhibit that aims to convey the enormity of the country’s pandemic losses. He and his team then blended the photographs into a single composite image, part of his Day to Night series. 

“One of the things I tried to capture was the epic scale of this,” says Wilkes. “It’s almost impossible to take it all in.”

Stephen Wilkes captures Joseph R. Biden's inauguration from sunrise to sunset in one striking picture

 

President Joseph Biden Inauguration, Washington, DC, January 20, 2021, Day To Night

Stephen Wilkes

Via National Geographic

The inauguration, from sunrise to sunset, captured in one striking picture.

Photographs taken over the course of 15 hours are combined in this historic image. "Sometimes it’s this magical serendipity that I have no control over but I am just present for." --Stephen Wilkes

Read the full article on the making of this historic photograph during unprecedented times here.

See Stephen Wilkes' complete Day To Night collection here.

Santa Fe Workshops Presents: Perspectives — Stephen Wilkes Day to Night, through Ellis Island, to "Jay Myself”

 

Via Santa Fe Workshops

January 12 - 15, 2021

In a world where humanity has become obsessively connected to personal devices, the ability to focus in a profound and contemplative way is becoming an endangered experience. These three lecture-format presentations promise to provide an engaging alternative to that trend.

Over the course of three days, fine-art and documentary photographer, National Geographic Society explorer, and filmmaker Stephen Wilkes takes you on a deep dive into his most important bodies of work.

Each day Stephen provides an exclusive in-depth look at his creative and technical processes, imbued with treasured stories and inspiration about a single project. This format allows him the rare opportunity to share the rich details of each one and weave them together to showcase the arc of his iconic career.

Day One - Day to Night

Day to Night represents Stephen's 10-year personal journey to capture fundamental elements of our world through the span of 24 hours, as light passes in front of a lens over the course of a full day. This synthesis of art and science is an exploration of time, memory, and history, as witnessed through the daily rhythms of our lives. For Stephen, it also became a meditation. The concept of Day to Night has redefined the medium of photography, melding aesthetics and technology to create a new way of seeing time, capturing history, and using imagery to convey a narrative. Blending these epic images of cityscapes and landscapes into a single photograph is a process that takes months to complete. Day to Night has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning and exhibited around the world.

Day Two - Ellis Island

We explore Stephen's critically acclaimed photographic documentary project capturing the abandoned infectious disease hospital on Ellis Island. In 1998, a one-day assignment to the south side of Ellis Island led to a five-year photographic study of the island’s abandoned medical wards, where immigrants were detained before they could enter America. The project, which was featured on NPR and CBS Sunday Morning, eventually became Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom, named one of the top 10 photography books of 2006 by Time magazine. Stephen served for five years on the board of directors for Save Ellis Island.

Day Three - Jay Myself

A special screening of Jay Myself is made available for participants to watch between the webinar's second and third presentations. Then Stephen shares his fascinating story about the making of the film and his enduring 40-year friendship with its subject, Jay Maisel. The film charts the arduous logistical and emotional journey of Maisel—himself a renowned photographer—as he moves out of his six-story, 72-room home in New York City's Bowery. Variety's film critic Owen Gleiberman said: “After watching Jay Myself, you yourself may begin to see the world in a whole new way, as if you’d woken up to all the images that might have been invisible before, but only because you passed them by.”

These three presentations by a visionary photographer and filmmaker leave an inspirational and indelible mark on all who choose to open their eyes and minds to his technical and artistic mastery. You are invited to join Stephen and experience an unforgettable photographic journey through time. Tune in and let’s get busy!

Register here

Stephen Wilkes' Day To Night Photograph One Of National Geographic's "10 unforgettable images from Year in Pictures issue"

 

Via National Geographic

December 8, 2020

After all the tumult of 2020—an extraordinary year that brought a deadly pandemic, political turmoil, racial reckonings, and record-breaking wildfires—it’s fitting that National Geographic is publishing its first-ever Year in Pictures issue

Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off My Neck, Washington, DC, Day to Night, August, 2020

Fifty-seven years to the day after Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial, another march drew thousands of people to Washington, D.C., to protest police brutality and racial injustice. To capture this scene, Stephen Wilkes photographed from a single fixed camera position on an elevated crane, making images at intervals throughout a 16-hour period. He then edited the best moments and blended them seamlessly into one image.

“This is Stephen bringing his unique way of capturing time to one of the seminal moments of the summer,” Moran says. “The beauty of it as you look through this photograph, not only do you get that sense of movement across that day but on all those different screens you see the main characters, including Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King’s granddaughter, who were critical to the day’s success.”

 

Via TED Countdown Global Launch

October 10, 2020

24 hours on Earth — in one image

Stephen Wilkes • Countdown • October 2020

"Nature reveals itself to us in unique ways, if we stop and look at the world through a window of time," says photographer Stephen Wilkes. Using a special photographic technique that reveals how a scene changes from day to night in a single image, Wilkes exposes the Earth's beautiful complexity and the impacts of climate change — from the disruption of flamingo migrations in Africa to the threat of melting ice — with unprecedented force.

VACATION SEPTEMBER 8 - 12, 2019

Ernst Haas: White Sands, New Mexico, 1952

The Gallery is closed for vacation September 8 - 12, 2019. We will resume normal business hours of 10 - 5 on Friday, September 13. "Living in History" continues through September 22; Stephen Wilkes "Day To Night" opens with a reception and book signing on October 4.

Day to Night: In the Field With Stephen Wilkes at the National Geographic Museum

Tour de France, Paris, Day to Night, 2016 / Photograph by Stephen Wilkes

Via National Geographic

Photographer Stephen Wilkes is recognized around the world for his stunning image compositions of landscapes as they transition from day to night. Each of these dramatic images is meticulously crafted from more than 1,500 photographs taken from a fixed vantage point over the course of 15 to 30 hours, from sunrise to sunset. Stephen spent much of 2017 on assignment documenting bird migration routes for National Geographic magazine. This exhibition takes you into the field and behind the scenes, shining a light on the talent and dedication it takes to beautifully capture the passing of time. On exhibit February 13 - April 22, 2018.  More information here.

Talk

Day to Night: An Evening With Stephen Wilkes  Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Tuesday, February 13, 2018 

Get tickets here

National Geographic Feature Article: The Epic Journeys of Migratory Birds

Stephen Wilkes' Day To Night collection will be on exhibit at Monroe Gallery of Photography Oct. 5 - Nov. 18, 2018.

Stephen Wilkes' "Yosemite, Day to Night" Among National Geographic's "Best Photos of 2016"

National Geographic recently announced their "Best Photos of 2016".    In a  gallery of National Geographic's 52 best images of the year—curated from 91 photographers, 107 stories, and 2,290,225 photographs. Stephen Wilkes' photograph of Yosemite, Day To Night, was included as selection #29:

On a mountainside in Yosemite National Park, photographer Stephen Wilkes took 1,036 images over 26 hours to create this day-to-night composite.

This photo was originally published in "How National Parks Tell Our Story—and Show Who We Are," in January 2016.

View Stephen Wilkes' full Day To Night Collection here.

Related: See our full compilation of 2016 lists of the "Best" of all things photography here.

Monroe Gallery of Photography At Art Aspen August 4 - 7

August 4-7, 2016
Aspen Ice Garden
Opening Night, Aug. 4

Art Aspen Press Release CHICAGO (July 28, 2016) – The seventh edition of Art Aspen will showcase the very best in modern and contemporary art with artwork presented by galleries from around the country. Located at the Aspen Ice Garden from August 4-7, guests will find a myriad of works from 1950-present, displayed in an intimate, boutique-style setting with the spectacular Ajax Mountain as the backdrop. While planning a visit to Art Aspen, attendees should add these “must-do’s” to their list:

A Spectacular Opening Night Preview: Art Aspen will kick-off on Thursday, August 4 with an exciting Opening Night Preview that art lovers will not want to miss. Guests will have the opportunity to be among the first to explore and acquire the amazing works from established and emerging artists. Patrons, collectors and curators, FIRST LOOK and VIP Preview ticketholders have the opportunity to speak with the gallery owners and artists as well as acquire artwork before the fair opens to the general public. The Opening Night Preview is open to First Look Black Card ticket holders 5-6:30pm and opens to VIP Preview ticketholders from 6:30-9pm. Tickets are available at art-aspen.com/tickets or at the door.

Exhibiting Works from Renowned Galleries: The art world will converge at Art Aspen with amazing galleries displaying the works of renowned and up-and-coming artists from throughout the country. Pieces from artists such as Pablo Picasso, Lino Tagliapietra, Howard Schatz, Bernar Venet, Catherine Howe, and many more, will be on display. Art Aspen’s 2016 line-up includes: Addison Rowe Fine Art (Santa Fe, NM), ART|BASTION (Miami, FL), Axiom Contemporary (Santa Monica. CA), Bonner David Galleries (Scottsdale, AZ), Casterline|Goodman Gallery (Aspen, CO), Charon Kransen Arts (New York, NY), Christopher Martin Gallery (Aspen, CO + Dallas, TX + Santa Fe, NM), Duane Reed Gallery (St. Louis, MO), Evan Lurie Gallery (Carmel, IN), Galerie Maximillian (Aspen, CO), Gallery M (Denver CO), Gerald Peters Gallery (Santa Fe, NM), The Hue (Miami Beach, FL), IKON Ltd. Contemporary Art (Santa Monica, CA), Monroe Gallery of Photography (Santa Fe, NM), Opera Gallery (Aspen, CO; Miami, FL; New York, NY;), Tansey Contemporary (Santa Fe, NM), ten|Contemporary (Grass Valley, CA), Timothy Yarger Fine Art (Beverly Hills, CA), Walter Wickiser Gallery (New York, NY), William Shearburn Gallery (St Louis, MO), Yares Art Projects (New York, NY + Palm Springs, CA + Santa Fe, NM)and Zener Schon Contemporary Art (Mill Valley, CA).

More information here.

STEPHEN WILKES TED TALK

Stephen Wilkes: Coney Island, Day To Night

Via TED
Ideas Worth Spreading

"Photographer Stephen Wilkes crafts stunning compositions of landscapes as they transition from day to night, exploring the space-time continuum within a two-dimensional still photograph. Journey with him to iconic locations like the Tournelle Bridge in Paris, El Capitan in Yosemite National Park and a life-giving watering hole in heart of the Serengeti in this tour of his art and process."

See more of Stephen Wilkes' photography here.

TASCHEN: Stephen Wilkes: A Day in The Life

Stephen Wilkes: Serengeti, Day To Night, 2015

Coming from Taschen:

"Photographer Stephen Wilkes set out to rethink these iconic landmarks. Vast and extraordinarily detailed, his images capture not just the location, but rather a day in the life of that location. Wilkes’ process is intensive, waking before dawn and shooting up to 2,000 frames from a stationary vantage point, which are then painstakingly edited together to form a seamless collage. For every site, he also has to capture the same space without anyone in it. That empty image becomes, in Wilkes’ words, the “the naked plate” on which he overlays the details from all the other images."


To Pre-Order or receive more information about the limited edition of Stephen Wilkes please contact collectors@taschen.com.

The AIPAD Photography Show Recap

It was truly a pleasure seeing so many of our friends, colleagues, photographers, and collectors - and meeting so many new friends and collectors, during the AIPAD Photography Show. Thank you all for visiting us and we sincerely hope we may see you soon in the gallery in Santa Fe!


Hyperallergic

"I catch sight of Stephen Wilkes’s “Recycled Aluminum Can Study #1” at Monroe Gallery’s booth, and I am floored"

ArtNews:


See What Top Dealers Are Bringing to the AIPAD Photography Show

Collector Daily:

Every Booth at the 2016 AIPAD Photography Show, Part 4 of 4
(Monroe Gallery slide 15 of 21)

Every Booth at the 2016 AIPAD Photography Show, Part 3 of 4

Every Booth at the 2016 AIPAD Photography Show, Part 2 of 4

Every Booth at the 2016 AIPAD Photography Show, Part 1 of 4

NY Arts:

THE PHOTOGRAPHY SHOW AT PARK AVENUE ARMORY, NEW YORK

"When People Can See Time"

Via NPR All Tech Considered
February 19, 2016
Nina Gregory

Of all of the arts, photography may be the discipline most accustomed to the nudge of technology, and photographer and artist Stephen Wilkes fully embraces the challenge. His latest project, "Day to Night," takes on the idea of showcasing, in one composite still image, the transformation of a place over the course of a day.

Take his photo of Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. For 26 hours, Wilkes shot 2,200 photos without moving the camera and while suspended in the air in a tent-like structure with a little window, so that animals wouldn't see or hear him as he photographed them coming to a watering hole from sunrise to deep into the night.

"I photograph by hand; this is not a time lapse. ... It's my eye seeing very specific moments," Wilkes says. "I like to describe myself as a collector of magical moments."

Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, Day to Night, 2015

Courtesy of Stephen Wilkes                     

Once Wilkes has all the images, he picks the best moments of the day and the night and creates what he calls a master plate. Those images then get seamlessly blended into one single photograph, where time is on a diagonal vector, with sunrise beginning in the bottom right-hand corner. That process of creating a single image can take about four months — though it's photographed in a single day.

I spoke with Wilkes in Vancouver, ahead of his TED talk, about the powers of digital photography, the experience of looking in the face of time and the challenge of sharing emotion through an image. Below are some of the highlights of our conversation.

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Interview Highlights

On watching animal life unfold during the Serengeti shoot

Times Square, NYC, Day to Night, 201   

 Courtesy of Stephen Wilkes 

          

I'm changing time within the picture. As the sun is rotating, light is changing and all these animals, you can see time change on the light in the animals. It's all based on time. ... (At) sunrise you begin to see the watering hole is quiet and the animals migrate in as the sun rises. Wildebeests and zebras graze together; one has terrible eyes and the other has lousy hearing — the blind leading the deaf. There are meerkats. It was like watching the movie Jungle Book. As time is changing, you see the sun getting higher, you see the light begins to rotate and starts to go behind the animals. I'm watching them. Guess who else is watching them? A lion.

They have this whole process of coming in and going out, it's a rhythm. I'm telling the story based on time. It's such a complicated process and yet there's so much luck involved.

Pont de la Tournelle, Paris, Day to Night, 2013      

Courtesy of Stephen Wilkes             

On evolving as a photographer

I discovered digital in 2000 and started to realize, because I had to come through the process of analog ... I wanted to push the medium outward. So what I've been exploring is this concept of day-to-night, where I change time within a photograph. I'm really exploring the space-time continuum within a two-dimensional photograph. And it's really cool because I can tell stories that photographs could never tell before. Compressing an entire day into a single image, the best moments, allows me to share things on a narrative level that you just couldn't see.

On the power of seeing the face of time

The most exciting part of it really is how people respond to the work. It's an amazing, emotional thing. When people can see time, the face of time in a way, it's this thing we can never put our hands around. But yet, when you look at it, it makes you feel a different way and there's an emotional thing that happens and that's exciting. I just think it's the best time to be alive as a photographer, really. I think as technology keeps evolving the things you could only imagine or dream are at your fingertips now. It's just about where you want to go.

View from The Savoy, London, Day to Night, 2013      

Courtesy of Stephen Wilkes             

On the advantages of digital photography

When you can capture an image on a silicon chip versus a piece of film you can see it instantly, that's the first thing. For me, when I do one of my photographs, I can shoot 2,500 images in a single day. Now, if I was doing that with an 8x10 camera, which is the image quality I have in my digital back*, that would be 2,500 sheets of 8x10 film. It would be impossible to do what I'm doing, just the visualization of that would be impossible — and financially, to boot. And my assistant would probably jump out of the cherry picker!

*Editor's Note: A digital back is a piece of equipment you can add to the back of a film camera to modify it to take digital images.

On the high level of detail in digital photography

So if I'm a storyteller, I love that, suddenly things that were insignificant are really significant now. And that's the power of what's happening now. Eventually photography is going to look like a window; you're going to have a visceral experience with my pictures on the wall. Because the way you'll see into my pictures is almost the way the eye sees, and that's the way it's going. For me, I want you to feel the way I felt when I stood there and took the picture.


On the future of photo printing
I work with a master printer in New York and I actually print on conventional photographic paper because of the depth perception. I really want to enhance that, but there are so many new technologies that are coming out in terms of 3-D printing and all kinds of different things. Who knows where we're going to be five, 10, 15 years from now based on what's happening and the speed of what's happening.



View the full Day To Night Collection here.

The Picture Show

Eerie Ellis Island, Then And Now

Visit us during Photo LA 2016 this weekend

photo l.a. celebrates super snapshots at The Reef from Jan. 22-24. (Photo: Stephen Wilkes, Serengeti, Tanzania, Day To Night, 2015, Courtesy of the Monroe Gallery of Photography)

NBC 4 Southern California

By Alysia Gray Painter

January 21, 2016

Weekend: photo l.a.
Celebrated shutterbugs, collectors, galleries, and fans converge to buy, admire, discuss.


photo l.a.: The yearly gathering of galleries, fans, buyers, and lauded photographers who capture elaborate stories with one click has a big name for the bigness it encompasses. The Reef downtown is the setting for The 25th Annual International Los Angeles Photographic Exposition will be flush with photos and tours and panels and everything that has anything to do with the camera, the lens, and the eye. You don't have to buy or attend one of the programs to enjoy a day; a one-day ticket to the Jan 22-24 snapshot spectacular is twenty bucks.


Monroe Gallery is located in booth #205 /302, just to the right of the main fair entrance.
Friday, January 22, 11am - 7pm
Saturday, January 23, 11am - 7pm
Sunday, January 24, 11am - 6pm
More information here

National Geographic PROOF Features Stephen Wilkes Day To Night Series

Photographing from the Desert View Watchtower, Wilkes made this image of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in 27 hours. This vantage point allowed him to see the scale of the people along the overlook.

Via National Geographic PROOF Picture Stories
January 5, 2016

Piecing Together Time in the ‘Ultimate Brain Puzzle’

"A single image in Stephen Wilkes’s “Day to Night” series is composed of an average of 1,500 frames captured by manual shutter clicks over a period of anywhere from 16 to 30 hours. During this process, Wilkes must keep his horizon line straight and maintain continuity, which means keeping his camera perfectly still.

He then spends weeks in postproduction, piecing the best frames together into a final composite of layered images, essentially compressing time. For Wilkes, the excitement is in showing people something more than a photograph, something that provides a multidimensional experience, a window, as he describes it, into a world where the full spectrum of time, light, and experience plays across the frame. We’re treated to a view we’ve never seen before—one our eyes could never take in on their own." Full post here.

 

Wilkes and his assistant spent 30 hours perched on a platform 18 feet in the air, behind a crocodile blind so the animals wouldn’t see them. The elephant family marched across the frame just as he and his assistant had resumed shooting after taking a break to backup their files (each shoot takes about 20 gigabytes of storage). Had they passed five minutes earlier, he would have missed them

Monroe Gallery will be exhibiting Stephen Wilkes’ "Day To Night" photographs featured in the January, 2016 issue of National Geographic during photo l.a. 2016, as well as selections from Wilkes' recent Remnants collection.



Related: Nationally recognized photographer Stephen Wilkes has turned his lens to our national parks, commemorating their 100th anniversary