Documenting A Historic Inauguration With Gallery Photographers Nina Berman and Stephen Wilkes

 

Via ABC7 News

View the exhibition History Now

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.

THE "BEST" OF 2016

Here we go again. The lists begin earlier every year: everyone's photography "Best of" lists. As 2016 becomes history, below is what has become an annual tradition: our compilation of what the web selected as the "best" of all things photography 2016.


In Memoriam: Remembering the Photographers We Lost in 2016


"Best" Photographs

Middle East Monitor: The Year in pictures

Mirror: Pictures of the year

Metro.co.uk: The most shocking and powerful images from 2016

Irish Times: 2016 in pictures: Irish news and politics

Albuquerque Journal: A year in focus

The Week: The year's best photojournalism

Daily Herald: Here are some of The Herald’s best photographs of 2016

The Salt Lake Tribune’s best photos of 2016

West Milford Messenger: A look back at 2016 in pictures

Big Picture: The best Boston Globe photos of 2016

The Best VICE Photos of 2016

2016 TheWrap’s Original Photography in Review

Telegraph: Barack Obama's 2016 Year, Photos by Pete Souza

NY Times: In the Moment: Photographs From 2016

BBC: Africa's 2016 in pictures

ekathimerini.com: Greece: 2016 in pictures

Telegraph: Animal photos of the year 2016

Medium/The White House: Behind the Lens: 2016 Year in Photographs

Swim Swam: Best Swimming Photos 2016: Above the Surface

NY Times: The Best Styles Photography of 2016

Washington Post: 2016 was a great year for weather photography. Here are the best shots

Seattle Times: Watch: 2016 pictures of the Year

The Guardian: Our favourite Australian photos of 2016

Evening Standard: Pictures of the year: The best photographs from 2016

EuroNews: Pictures of the year 2016

International Business Times: The year's most powerful photos of the migrant crisis

TIME: The Best Drone Photographs of 2016

Hindustan Times: India in images: 2016 HT photographs that you must absolutely click through

BBC: The UK in 2016 as seen by Press Association photographers

Politico’s Best Photos of 2016

The Guardian: Our best portraits of 2016 – in pictures

Telegraph photographers' pictures of the year 2016

Al Jazeera's best photos of 2016

Washington Post: Our most memorable photos of 2016

Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting: 2016: A Year in Photos

Washington City Paper: Looking For Something: The best images exhibited in D.C. this year

Boston Globe The Big Picture: 2016 Year in Pictures: Part I

Boston Globe The Big Picture: 2016 Year in Pictures: Part II

Quartz: The most moving, striking images from a year of terrible news

Grimy Goods’ Best Concert Photography of 2016

Journal.ie: The 27 photographs that took our breath away in 2016

BBC: Year in pictures 2016

Highlights from the Year in New Yorker Photography

The Guardian: The funniest and most unusual animal photos of 2016

Christian Science Monitor: Our best photos of the year 2016

Politico Europe: Most powerful photographs of 2016

The Guardian: The best photographs of 2016 - in pictures

Images: Daily Herald's best photos from 2016

SantaFe.org: Top 10 Santa Fe Instagram Photos of 2016

A year in photos: CAR magazine's best 2016 pictures

Kottke.org: The year in photos 2016

BBC: In pictures: Twelve months, twelve frames

Rueters: Pictures of the year: Oddly

The Express Tribune: 38 iconic pictures of 2016

Bleed Cubbie Blue: The 10 Best Chicago Cubs Photos of 2016

Telesur: Europe 2016 in Pictures

New Statesman: Memes of 2016: What this year’s viral images will teach future historians

Wall Street Journal: Year in Photos 2016

CNN: 2016: The year in pictures

MIT Technology Review: Our Best Photographs of 2016

The Guardian: The best photographs of 2016 from across the US

WCPO: Staff photographer's top 9 photos of 2016

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: 2016: A year in Post-Gazette photos

STRAVA: The Best Photos of the Year

The Best Photographs FADER Took This Year

The Year in New Yorker Instagrams

Magnum: Martin Parr presents his edit of the 2016 photographers’ choice pictures of the year

Greenpeace: 2016 – The year in photos

Artsy: The Most Powerful Moments of Photojournalism in 2016

CBS News: 2016 Instagrammer of the year

USA Today: 2016: The year in pictures

ESPN: Iconic moments of 2016

HELLO! The Year in Pictures 2016

Vegas Seven: 2016 In Decline: The Year in Pictures

WNYC: Photography Roundtable: The Most Powerful Images of 2016

Business Insider: 50 stunning moments captured by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Reuters photography team in 2016

PHOTOS: 2016 Pictures of the Year from The Denver Post    

Metro: The most memorable photos of 2016

NY Times: The Year in Pictures 2016

NY Times: Choosing the New York Times Pictures of the Year

USA Today: 2016: One photo from every day

The 30 most stunning photos Business Insider took in 2016

Guardian photographer of the year 2016: Carl Court

Kansas City Business Journal: Year in Review: Best photographs of 2016

TIME: 50 Astonishing Animal Photos of 2016

Wall Street Journal: 2016 The Year in Review

A year through the lens: Nelson Mail's best sports photographs of 2016

NBC News:  The Year in Pictures: 2016

Federal News Radio:   2016 in pictures: Best photo galleries of the year

Silicon Republic: Enjoy some of the best award-winning photographs of 2016

International Business Times: The year in pictures: The 100 most memorable photos of  2016

Catch News: NASA releases top 16 photos of the Earth for 2016

Quartz: The very best drone photography of 2016

Up Worthy: 23 incredible photos from 2016 that prove it wasn't a total dumpster fire

British Journal of Photography: Kathy Ryan’s Best of 2016

The Guardian: 2016 Eyewitness: our summary of the defining images of the year

Space.com: The 100 Best Space Photos of 2016

Courier-Mail 2016 has been one of the most dramatic years ever, these are the pictures we will never forget

The Guardian: Jonathan Jones's top 10 art exhibitions of 2016

Digital Trends: These 20 Dronestagram photos take a look at 2016 from the skies

Market Watch: The Must-See Photos of 2016

CNN: Travel Photographer of the Year: 2016 winners revealed

WTOP: Top Google searches in 2016 (Photos)

TIME: The Best Space Photos of 2016

NPPA: Links for 'Best of the Year' Photo Galleries

New Atlas: 2016 from above: Some of the year's finest drone photography

A Look Back to L.A. Weekly's Best Photojournalism of 2016

Baltimore Sun/The Darkroom: 2016 Baltimore Sun pictures of the year

The Atlantic: 2016: The Year in Photos, September–December

The Atlantic: 2016: The Year in Photos, May-August

The Atlantic: 2016: The Year in Photos, January-April

L'Oeil De La Photographie:  The Best Of The Eye 2016

TIME: Best Sports Photos of 2016

LA Times: The top 10 art museum exhibitions of 2016, plus the worst trend of the year

TIME: The Best Weather Photos of 2016

What Culture: 30 Best WWE Photos of 2016

Al Arabiya: Part 1: 10 of the 100 best pictures of 2016

Photojournalink: 2016 in Pictures

TIME: The Best Weather Photos of 2016

AP: 2016 Photos in Review - News

AP: 2016 Photos in Review - Features

AP: Top Europe & Africa feature photos from 2016

AP: Top Europe & Africa news photos from 2016

AP PHOTOS: Best Feature Images From Latin America in 2016

AP: Top Europe & Africa sports photos from 2016

The Indian Express: Defining pictures of 2016: From Syria civil war to US elections, a glimpse into the year that was

ABC News: The Best Images of the Year: 56 Captivating Photos of 2016

The Onion’s Best Photojournalism Of 2016

The Guardian: Travel Photographer of the Year 2016: the winners – in pictures

The Oregonian: Our favorite music photography of 2016

TIME’s Best Photojournalism of 2016

Daily Mail: News agency AFP releases its best photographs of the year 

Bloomberg's Best Photos of 2016

CNN: 2016: The year in pictures

Hartford Courant: The Year In Pictures 2016

Maclean’s picks the top photos of 2016

TIME’s Best Portraits of 2016

Tufts Now: The Year in Photos 2016

TIME: The 10 Best Photos of 2016

Bloomberg: Watch our Video of The Best of the Year 2016 Photos

The Guardian: Photographer of the year – 2016 shortlist: Trump, refugees and the battle for Mosul

TIME: Wire Photographer of 2016

USA Today: 2016 Celebrity Phots of the Year

Business Insider: The most incredible nature photos of 2016

Newsday: 50 best sports photos of 2016

NOOR: 2016 Year in Review

Mashable: Man behind THAT Usain Bolt photo picks the best sporting shots of 2016

The Guardian: Sean O'Hagan's top 10 photography exhibitions of 2016

Associated Press: PHOTOS: 2016 in Review

The top 10 inspiring photography projects on Creative Boom in 2016

Tampa Bay Times: All Eyes Gallery, Cherie Diez's favorite photos of 2016

TIME: Ruddy Roye is TIME’s Pick for Instagram Photographer of 2016

The Atlantic: Top 25 News Photos of 2016

National Geographic: Best Photos of 2016

TIME: Top 100 Photos of the Year

Gizmodo: 2016's Supposed 'Photo of the Year' Is a Big Fat Fake

Rueters: Pictures of the year 2016

Powder: The 2016 Photos of the Year

Tampa Bay Times: All Eyes gallery: Lara Cerri's favorite photos of 2016

ArtNet: Here Are the World’s Most Instagrammed Museums of 2016

Daily Mail: Winners of categories in The Nature Conservancy 2016 Photo Competition

World Press Photo: 2016 Photo Contest

Audubon: The 2016 Audubon Photography Awards: Top 100

AOL: The 40 best Reuters photos of the year so far

USA Today: The best landscape photographs of 2016

Newsweek: The 10 Most-Liked Instagram Pictures of 2016 Revealed

National Geographic: Travel Photographer of the Year 2016

BBC: Wildlife Photographer of the Year - People's Choice

Straits Times: 8 iconic photos, videos and memes that best sum up 2016

IBN: Best Pictures From The 2016 Presidential Election Campaign Trail

Globe and Mail: AFP Sports Photos of the Year 2016

CNN: Haunting image of reservoir wins best architectural photograph of 2016

CNN: The best sailing pictures of 2016

TIME: The Best Astronomy Photos of 2016

Nation Geographic: The Winners of the 2016 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest

Wall Street Journal: Nature's Best Photography Awards

Time Lightbox: Best iPhone Photos of 2016

Belfast Telegraph: UK Mountain Photo of the Year 2016

MSN: The 100 best pictures of 2016

New Atlas: World's best architecture photography brought into sharp focus

Chicago Tribune: Skokie Through the Lens showcases best of Skokie through amateur photos

Delaware 105.9 Talk: Winners are revealed in 2016 Delaware Fishing Photo Contest


BEST Photobooks

Elizabeth Avedon: 2016 BEST PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS : ROUND-UP PART 1

Elizabeth Avedon: 2016 BEST PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS and HONORABLE MENTIONS : PART II

Lens Culture: 2016 Photobooks of the Year, Part II: 32 Personal Favorites        

NY Times: The Best Photo Books of 2016

The Guardian: The best photography books of 2016

American Photo: The Best Photography Books of the Year: 2016

Lens Culture: Critically Acclaimed: Experts' Top 14 Photobooks of 2016

1000 Words Magazine: Top 10 Photobooks of 2016

Colin Pantall's Blog: The Best Books of 2016:

Crave: The 5 Best Photography Books of 2016

pdn: Notable Photo Books of 2016: Part 1, 2, and 3

Photo Eye: The Best PhotoBooks of 2016 

The NY Times: A Spotlight on the Season’s Top Photography Books

Financial Times: Best books of 2016: Art & photography

Smithsonian: The Best "Art Meets Science" Books of 2016

HAF: The 17 Best Socially Concerned Photobooks of 2016

TIME Selects the Best Photobooks of 2016

Best Gear

The B&H Photography Podcast Presents "The Year in Cameras, 2016"
The Photoblographer: The Biggest Innovations in Photography in 2016

Digital Trends: Best Products of 2016: Photography

Popular Photography: 2016 Pop Awards: The Best Camera and Photo Gear of the Year

PC Advisor: Best phone camera 2016/2017

and a peek ahead to 2017

Neiman Lab: Predictions for Journalism 2017


2015 Edition here.

In the news: the unexploded bombs dropped on Laos during the Vietnam War

Stephen Wilkes: Bomb Craters, Laos, 2015

Stephen Wilkes' photographs in National Geographic: Laos Finds New Life After the Bombs

Slideshow

During a visit to Laos in 2012, LIFE photographer Bob Gomel's tour guide showed him how the Laotians hid from the American bombs during the war-in underground caves:

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

             

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

‘Herculean’ process produces ‘Day to Night’ images of national parks

Stephen Wilkes: Grand Canyon National Park, Day To Night, 2015

Via The Albuquerqe Journal
By Kathaleen Roberts / Journal Staff Writer
Sunday, December 20th, 2015

Invisible layers of time move Old Faithful from sunrise to sunset, ringed by a walkway of people rendered microscopic by its grandeur.

Nationally recognized photographer Stephen Wilkes has turned his lens to our national parks, commemorating their 100th anniversary in four-page gateway covers in both the January 2016 national and international issues of National Geographic. Santa Fe’s Monroe Gallery of Photography is showcasing the works beginning Saturday through Jan. 10, 2016.

Wilkes focused his discerning eye on Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, as well as the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and Tanzania’s Serengeti.

What may appear to be time-lapse photography at first glance actually isn’t, Wilkes maintained.

Stephen Wilkes: Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, Day to Night, 2015

(Slide Show Link)

WHAT: “Day to Night,” photographs by Stephen Wilkes
WHEN: Opening 5-7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 26; 10 a.m.- 6 p.m. Monday-Saturday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday; Runs through Jan. 10
WHERE: Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, Santa Fe
HOW MUCH: Free. Call 505-992-0800 or visit monroegallery.com

Working from a fixed camera angle, he captures the fleeting play of shadow and light as the sun shifts from dawn to dark. A single print may coalesce from 1,500 to 2,300 images. He uses a large format digital camera.

“I photograph from a single perspective, usually elevated, anywhere from 12 to 30 hours without moving my camera,” Wilkes said in a telephone interview from his Connecticut home.

“It’s quite Herculean. I’m actually studying a place for 30 hours.”

Launched in 2009, the parks project is an offshoot of a similar body of work on cities. He edits and blends the images into seamless works of art in post-production, a process that takes about a month.

“I look for very iconic places where everybody goes, ‘I’ve been there,'” he explained. “These places are part of our collective memory. When I do that, some kind of magic happens. Time becomes compressed.”

Stephen Wilkes: Yosemite, Tunnel View, Day To Night 2014

At Yellowstone, he photographed Old Faithful from the old crow’s nest atop the inn of the same name, capturing both the sun and the moon peaking above the foothills.

“It’s the most active place on the planet geologically,” Wilkes said. “It goes off every 90 minutes. When you look at that picture, you realize the enormity of just how big it is.”

Long a fan of the Hudson River School painter Albert Bierstadt, famous for his highly romanticized views of the West, Wilkes thought he could never capture the artist’s sweeping aesthetic.

“He painted it from the opposite view,” Wilkes said. “It was if I was channeling him at that moment. Yosemite is as close to being a religious experience as a landscape. When you look at the people in that photograph you realize how insignificant we are as a species.”

In Washington, he spent his preparation time following the cherry blossom handlers checking the petals for signs of peak bloom. Wilkes photographed them between the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial using an 80-foot crane.

Stephen Wilkes

Cherry Blossoms, National Mall and Memorial Parks, Day to Night, Washington D.C., 2015

The Serengeti offered a breakthrough, both aesthetically and philosophically. Wilkes arrived during the peak migration of the wildlife, but the animals had stopped due to a five-week drought. He began studying a watering hole and waited in hope. He had no idea if any creatures would appear.

“We started at 2 a.m. with an 18-foot platform with a crocodile blind,” he said. “We essentially became invisible.”

He witnessed something miraculous. The creatures arrived slowly, carefully taking turns without fighting over the precious resource.

“All these competitive species shared water,” Wilkes said. “It sort of speaks to you. They say the single resource we’ll go to war over is water. We have to hear what the animals know already.”

Stephen Wilkes: Serengeti, Tanzania, Day to Night, 2015

Wilkes came to New Mexico last fall to check out the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. He plans to return and shoot the most photographed event in the world next year.

-- Stephen Wilkes Day To Night photographs will be exhibited by Monroe Gallery at the photola fair, January 21 - 24, 2016.

See the National Geographic article on-line here.

STEPHEN WILKES DAY TO NIGHT FEATURE IN NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Stephen Wilkes Day To Night photograph of Yosemite National Park will be a special three-page gateway fold out cover for the January issue of National Geographic, highlighting a special tribute to the 100^th anniversary of the National Park Service. Inside, several other of Wilkes’ Day To Night photographs of  the National Parks are featured over 16 pages, including the National Mall and Memorial Park, Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park; and the Grand Canyon, as well as Serengeti, Tanzania.

Simultaneously, Wilkes stunning Day To Night photograph of Serengeti in Tanzania will be the cover for the January, 2016 issue of the International edition of National Geographic, an extraordinary double cover exposure for a photographer.

Day to Night is an ongoing global photographic project that began in 2009. Working from a fixed camera angle, Wilkes captures the fleeting moments of humanity and light as time passes. After 24 hours of photographing and over 1500 images taken, he selects the best moments of the day and night. Using time as a guide, all of these moments are seamlessly blended into a single photograph in post-production.

"Anything one can imagine one can create. Over the last several years, photographic technology has evolved to a point where anything is possible. I imagined changing time in a single photograph. I began to explore this fascination with time in a new series of photographs called: “Day to Night”. –Stephen Wilkes

Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, will host a Holiday reception celebrating the special feature of Stephen Wilkes’ "Day To Night" photographs in the January, 2016 issues of National Geographic. The public reception will be on Saturday, December 26, from 5 - 7 PM. A special selection of Wilkes’ Day To Night photographs will be on exhibit through January 10, 2016.

Stephen Wilkes: Photography is dead? Hogwash.

Via The Ottawa Citizen
Peter Simpson - The Big Beat

Published on: November 16, 2015

 

Still photography was dead, or so they said. Ubiquitous video would make still photography obsolete, anachronistic, unnecessary.

 

The photographer Stephen Wilkes knows otherwise.

 

“To me, this is the most exciting moment in the history of photography. The potential to explore things that we’ve never done in a still photograph are so great,” says Wilkes, by phone from his studio in Westport, Connecticut. “I’ve been very conscious of using new technologies in the medium to push the medium outward.”

 

His “Day to Night” images, which compress multiple frames of the same scene taken from dawn to dusk — but which are not time-lapse photography — demonstrate his drive to show familiar as anew.

 

To me, what Day to Night is, it’s changing the way you look at a still photograph,” says Wilkes, who will be at the National Gallery Nov. 19 for the U.S. embassy’s art-lecture series, Contemporary Conversations.

 

I chat with Wilkes for 51 minutes and, I confess, I’m not entirely clear on how he made the Day for Night photographs, most famously his image of Barack Obama’s first inauguration as president of the United States.

 

 

Presidential Inauguration, Day to Night, 2013, by Stephen Wilkes

 (Archival Digital Type‑C print. Courtesy the artist)

 

The inaugural photograph appears to be a single image of more than 800,000 people crowded onto the Mall leading to the steps of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Far in the distance, the president stands with his hand raised, swearing fealty to the constitution.

 

Curiously, an orange dawn breaks on the right side of the frame, while dark night creeps on the left. The people on the right side may be only a few hundred feet from the people on the left, but they are also separated by 10 hours.

 

Wilkes was amid the vast crowd and 50 feet in the air on a scissor lift, and he shot as many as 2,500 frames from sun up to sundown on “a bloody cold day,” the entire time a slave to precision.

 

“If I shift my weight every time I take a picture, if my feet are not in the exact same position, then my horizon line changes,” he says, and describes how he had to put down tape marks for his feet, and for those of his assistant. It must have looked like a crime scene up there.

 

He then whittled the hundreds of frames down to 50, and made them into a sort of collage, “almost like a time capsule, on this day, in this place. . . . It’s like a giant puzzle I do in my head as I work.”

 

 

  Corridor # 9, Island 3, Ellis Island, 1998,

                             (Archival Digital Type‑C print. Courtesy the artist)

 

 

The only obvious hint that it’s a composite image, other than the weird dichotomy of light and dark, are the differing views of the president shown on huge video screens at the side of the Mall.

 

“Day to Night is almost a synthesis of all the things that I love about the medium of photography. . .  In a way I’m putting a face on time,” Wilkes says, and then talks of how we remember, together, a time that’s passed. “I’m very interested in the idea of what our collective memory is, as a species.”

 

I’ve already gone well over my allotted time for our interview — usually 20 minutes or so — but Wilkes, after two decades of work, remains infectiously enthusiastic.

 

He describes at length his experiences while photographing abandoned, decaying structures at Ellis Island in New York harbour, once the arrival point for millions of immigrants to the U.S., and at the Bethlehem Steel plant.

 

“There was a palpable sense of humanity in these historic places that, in a way, I never really understood or realized you could really capture,” he says.  “I think the greatest rewards have been when people see these multiple bodies of work that I’ve done and they say to me, ‘I can feel my ancestors in your pictures. I can feel the people in your photographs.’”

 

He talks passionately of photographing the effects of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill on New Orleans, and of shooting nudes for the first time, in a remarkable series, after 9/11. “Our lives were turned upside down. I felt like I wanted to go back and think about what the creation was like.”

 

He recounts going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the first time, at age 14, and being deeply influenced by a Bruegel the Elder painting, the Harvesters. “I remember walking up to it and looking closely at these men in the field, and it was almost as if I could feel the sweat on their brow.”

 

Wilkes had been taking photographs for two years at that point, and says “nothing ever made me feel like that. I loved the idea of capturing a moment on film.”

 

Decades later, his belief in photography  as an catalyst for change is undiminished.

 

“I find that by creating images that have an inherent beauty, people will look at them for just a second, and if I get you for just a second, then I think I can make you think a little deeper about what I’m showing you.” And, emphatically, “The power of the single image is the way.”

 

As for the photography-is-dead crowd, let them be damned.

 

What: Stephen Wilkes, Contemporary Conversations

When & where: 6 p.m., Nov. 19 at the National Gallery. Tickets, free.

 

 www.gallery.ca/conversations

 

Stephen Wilkes in National Geographic: Laos to National Parks

Stephen Wilkes: Bomb Craters, Laos, 2015

Stephen Wilkes' photographs in National Geographic: Laos Finds New Life After the Bombs

Slideshow

The January 2016 issue of National Geographic will feature Stephen Wilkes' photographs as part of a special tribute to the 100th Anniversary of the National Park Service.

Stephen Wilkes: "Remnants" continues through November 22 at Monroe Gallery of Photography.

Joe McNally - A Retrospective

 

 

 

 

Via Joe McNally's blog

Joe McNally Photojournalist Exhibition at the Monroe Gallery of Photography in Santa Fe, New Mexico, October 3 - November 23, 2014. See the video of a 30 year retrospective of Joe McNally's diverse and dynamic images. Joe reflects on the passage of time, and Sidney Monroe discusses collector's rising interest in photojournalism as a fine art. View the exhibition images here.



Review: Joe McNally at Monroe Gallery

photograph
November/December 2014

Review

By Douglas Fairfield

Joe McNaIIy

Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe

Joe McNaIIy, Yellowstone - Walkway in the Fog, 2006.

©Joe McNaIIy. Courtesy Monroe Gallery

Being at the right place at the right time is a photographer's modus operandi, and photojournalist Joe McNally has had his share of right-place, right-time moments; moments that have resulted in memorable, if not iconic images. In a retrospective of the photographer's work - on view at Monroe Gallery of Photography in Santa Fe through November 23 - more than 45 images stand testament to McNaIIy's discerning eye, both in formal and candid situations. Photos in color and black and white dating from 1978 to 2013 feature subjects of a most eclectic nature not typically associated with one photographer. But given a 30-year career in which McNaIly has contributed to TIME, Newsweek, Fortune, The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, and LIFE, among others, it is little wonder that his portfolio runs the gamut in terms of subject matter. This includes sports, politics, music, science, portraiture, the natural and urban landscape, and war. lnterestingly, McNaIIy carries the distinction of being the last staff photographer for LIFE, whose pages, over the years, were filled with photographs by Alfred Eisenstaedt, John Loengard, Carl Mydans, Gordon Parks, and W. Eugene Smith.

Among the pictures on display are eight life-size portraits by McNaIly of individuals impacted by the events of 9/11 taken just days following the horrific attack. lncluded are former mayor of New York City Rudolph Giuliani and New York firefighter Joe Hodges, each part of McNally's larger document called Faces of Ground Zero, which traveled around the country and spawned a book by the same title. The one-of-kind, 80 x 40-inch Polaroid photos are mounted on freestanding stanchions placed down the center of the gallery. Whereas each picture by McNally holds a newsworthy narrative, a few nudge into fine art, like Yellowstone— Walkway in the Fog, 2006, in which an unoccupied walkway emerging from the bottom center of the composition curves gently to the right leading the viewer into an otherworldly environment of shimmering, copper-colored mineral water and fog-shrouded background. In the upper left corner is a snow-covered rise where barely visible trees appear like scratchings upon the photographic surface. History-making events and sheer beauty are fully captured through McNally's lens.

Joe McNally Exhibition October 3 - November 23, 2014

A young girl takes to an abandoned building for the shade in January of 1999, Mumbai, India

 



Santa Fe--Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is pleased to announce a major exhibition by internationally acclaimed American photographer and long-time photojournalist, Joe McNally. The exhibition will open with a public reception for Joe McNally on Friday, October 3, 5 - 7 PM. The exhibition will continue through November 23. (The exhibit is now featured on www.monroegallery.com; also to be announced is a Google Hangout in September.)

The exhibit features more than 45 photographs from Joe McNally’s remarkable career that has spanned more than 30 years and included assignments in 60 countries. Joe was the last staff photographer in the history of LIFE magazine, sharing a legacy with his heroes and mentors—Carl Mydans, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Gordon Parks, John Loengard—who forever influenced and shaped his work. McNally won the first Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Journalistic Impact for a LIFE coverage titled, “The Panorama of War.” He has been honored numerous times by Communication Arts, PDN, Graphis, American Photo, POY, and The World Press Photo Foundation. His prints are in numerous collections, most significantly the National Portrait Gallery of the United States and National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

McNally is often described as a generalist because of his ability to execute a wide range of assignment work, and was listed at one point by American Photo as one of the “100 Most Important People in Photography” and described by the magazine as “perhaps the most versatile photojournalist working today.” His expansive career has included being an ongoing contributor to the National Geographic - shooting numerous cover stories and highly complex, technical features for the past 25 years; a contract photographer for Sports Illustrated; as well as shooting cover stories for TIME, Newsweek, Fortune, New York, and The New York Times Sunday Magazine.

McNally’s most well-known series is "Faces of Ground Zero - Portraits of the Heros of September 11th", a collection of 246 Giant Polaroid portraits shot in the Moby c Studio near Ground Zero in a three-week period shortly after 9/11. A large group of these historic, compelling, life-size (9’ x 4’) photos were exhibited in seven cities in 2002, and seen by almost a million people. Sales of the exhibit book helped raise over $2 million for the 9/11-relief effort. This collection is considered by many museum and art professionals to be one of the most significant artistic endeavors to evolve from the 9/11 tragedy, and examples are included in the exhibit. Some of McNally’s other renowned photographic series include: “The Future of Flying,” cover & 32-page story, National Geographic Magazine, December 2003. The story, on the future of aviation and the first all digital shoot in the history of that venerable magazine, commemorated the centennial observance of the Wright Brothers' flight. This issue was a National Magazine Award Finalist and his coverage was deemed so noteworthy it has been incorporated into the archives of the Library of Congress.

He regularly writes a popular, irreverent blog  about the travails, tribulations, oddities and very occasional high moments of being a photographer, and has also authored several noteworthy books on photography, two of which, The Moment It Clicks and The Hot Shoe Diaries, cracked Amazon’s Top Ten list of best sellers. While his work notably springs from the time-honored traditions of magazine journalism, McNally has also adapted to the internet driven media world, and was recently named as one of the “Top 5 Most Socially Influential Photographers” by Eye-Fi. His work and his blog are regularly cited in social media surveys as sources of inspiration and industry leadership. He is also among the rare breed of photographer who has bridged the world between photojournalism and advertising, amassing an impressive commercial and advertising client list including FedEx, Nikon, Epson, Sony, Land’s End, General Electric, MetLife, USAA, Adidas, ESPN, the Beijing Cultural Commission, and American Ballet Theater.

A sought-after workshop instructor and lecturer, he has taught at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshop, the Eddie Adams Workshop, the National Geographic Society, Smithsonian Institution, the Annenberg Space for Photography, Rochester Institute of Technology, the Disney Institute, and the U.S. Department of Defense. He received his bachelor’s and graduate degrees from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, and returns there to lecture on a regular basis. Recently, he was named as a Nikon USA Ambassador, an honor which has a special reverence for him, as he bought his first Nikon camera in 1973, and for forty years, from the deserts of Africa to the snows of Siberia, he has seen the world through those cameras.

 

Monroe Gallery of Photography was founded by Sidney S. Monroe and Michelle A. Monroe. Building on more than four decades of collective experience, the gallery specializes in 20th and 21st Century Photojournalism. The gallery also represents a select group of contemporary and emerging photographers.

 

Gallery hours are 10 to 5 daily. Admission is free. For further information, please call: 505.992.0800; E-mail: info@monroegallery.com


 Preview the exhibit here.

 

Bolshoi Ballet, Moscow, 1997

 

 

Joe McNally: A Life Behind the Lens

Via The Annenberg Center

Joe McNally

A Life Behind the Lens

From Thursday, January 16th, 2014

 

 

 

As a globetrotting magazine photographer, Joe McNally’s creative use of light has been the most notable aspect of his approach to shooting. Whether covering an editorial assignment for magazines such as TIME, Fortune and The New York Times Sunday Magazine, or shooting ad campaigns and corporate work for Fortune 500 companies, McNally embraces the power that light plays on a photo subject.
 

Show more...

The recipient of numerous photo awards, McNally has been a contract photographer for Sports Illustrated, a staff photographer at LIFE and is an ongoing 25-year contributor to National Geographic. He teaches his craft globally and has penned several best-selling photo books. McNally also created “Faces of Ground Zero – Giant Polaroid Collection.” The resulting exhibit and book raised approximately $2 million for relief efforts.

Watch Joe as he discusses the trials and tribulations of his career, the problems and personalities he dealt with and the overriding sense of humor that gets him through the day.

Joe McNally's photographs will be exhibited at Monroe Gallery of Photography October 3 - November 23, 2014
 

'BEST' PHOTOS OF 2012

The lists are in. Here is the final edit of everone's photography "Best of" lists for 2012. (Thanks to @Stellazine who made sure we didn't miss any!) Happy 2013 to all!


Photojournalismlinks: Top 10 Photos of 2012

NPPA: Top Five Photojournalism Stories of 2012

TIME: 366: The Year in Photographs 2012

The New York Times: 2012: The Year in Pictures

The New York Times: 2012: The Year in Culture

BBC: The year in pictures 2012

CNN: 2012: The year in pictures

The Washington Post: Best of The Post 2012

The Sacramento Bee: Moments Through Our Eyes, The Year In Pictures

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/photos/2012/12/moments-through-our-eyes-the-y.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter#mi_rss=The%20Frame#storylink=cpy

TIME: A Year of Photographers in the Picture

BBC: UK Year in Pictures 2012

Al Jazeera - In Pictures: The year in review

The Santa Fe New Mexican photographers look back at their favorite images of 2012

Ad Age's Magazine Covers of the Year

Documenting 2012 Through Instagram

Weather.com: Best Weather Photos of 2012

The Brian Leher Show: The Best of Your 2012 Cell Phone Pictures

Dallas Morning News: Our favorite photos from Getty Images in 2012
 
PDN's 12 Most Popular News Stories of 2012

Chicago Tribune: 2012 best news photos

2012 best Chicago iPhone photos

Guardian: The best photographs of 2012

TIME: In Memoriam: Photographers Who Died in 2012

NYT Lens: The Images of 2012: Sports

Guardian: Best portraits of 2012 – in pictures

A Photo Editor: The Best Photos I Saw This Year That I Haven’t Already Written About Yet

Spiegel: Photo Gallery: The Best News Photos of 2012

 

New York Times Lens: The Images of 2012 - New York

Telegraph: Pictures of the year 2012: UK news

American Photo: 2012's Best Photojournalism

Bloomberg: Bloomberg's Best Photos 2012: A Changing World

Vanity Fair: 2012 in Vanity Fair

Guardian: After 52 weeks of diligent smartphoning, we come to the end of a project to test the limits of iPhoneography and document the year in pictures

LA Times: The year in wire pictures | 2012

NBC News: The Year in Pictures 2012

Twelve from 2012: Portrait Photography in The New Yorker

BagNewsNotes: Best Photos of 2012, and Why: From Syria to the New York Harbor

Reportage by Getty Images: Looking Back at 2012

The Telegraph: 2012: The Year in Pictures

Poynter: Photojournalism in 2012: A year of excellence, ethical challenges and errors

As 2012 draws to a close, BBC invites five photographers to talk about the story behind one of their pictures taken this year:

1. Photographer Robin Hammond on story behind Nigeria picture

2. Associated Press photographer Bernat Armangue speaks about how he obtained this moving picture during the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas

3. Reuters photographer Beawiharta explains the story behind a picture of school children crossing a collapsed bridge in Indonesia

4. Owen Humphreys of the Press Association talks about his dramatic photograph of Mo Farah on his way to victory in the 10,000m at the London Olympics

5. Picture power: Living dead of the drug war

Boston.com The Big  Picture: 2012 Year in Pictures: Part I

                                                 Part 2

                                                Part 3

Boston.com: Best nature pictures of 2012

Associated Press: Top 10 Photos of 2012

Guardian: The best photography of 2012: Sean O'Hagan's choice

From Facebook IPO to Tsunami, Bloomberg Best Photos 2012

TIME Picks 2012′s Best Photographer on the Wires

TIME Picks the Top 10 Photos of 2012

TIME’s Best Photojournalism of 2012

TIME’s Best Portraits of 2012

TIME Picks the Top Photographic Magazine Covers of 2012

TIME Picks the Most Surprising Photos of 2012

TIME: 2012: A Year of Deja Vu

TIME: 2012: The Year in Silhouettes

TIME:  2012: A Year of Strange Landscapes

BagNewsNotes: Best Photos of 2012, And Why — #1: In Sandy’s Tracks

                          Best Photos of 2012 and Why: From Holmes to Newtown

Media Ethics: Top 10 Photo Fails: 2012's Fake & Wrong Photos

Adelaide Now: The most striking photos of 2012

The Phoenix Business Journal's best photos of 2012

Mercy Corps is training women to mediate land conflict in Guatemala: Ten best photos 2012

Windsor Star: Photos: More best images of 2012

Stuff: Best world photos 2012

Business Insider: The Best Photos Of Barack Obama in 2012

The New Yorker: The View from Space: 20 Stellar Photos of Earth in 2012

USA Today: Best News photos 2012

Photos: 2012 Photos of the Year by the Associated Press

BagNewsNotes:  Obama, the GOP and a Bookend Pair of “Pics of the Year'

Star-Ledger:  2012: Best N.J. feature photos of the year
                      2012: Best N.J. news photos of the year
                      2012: Best weather photos of the year

TotallyCoolPix: Top Pictures Of 2012 Part 1
                           Part 2

Guardian: Travel Photographer of the Year 2012 – the best pictures

Guardian: A Northern Eye - Chris Thomond's look back on 2012 starts today

Wired’s Favorite Viral Photo Projects of 2012

Sports Illustrated: Pictures of the Year

2012’s Best Entertainment Photography

Vancouver Sun:  Top photos from the year shot by Getty Images photographers
around the world

Global News: Best photos from 2012

Business Insider: 42 Unforgettable Photos From The Past Year

Wall Street Journal: Year in Photos 2012

WSJ’s Photos of the Year: Behind the Images

CNN  2012:The Year in Pictures

The Atlantic: In Focus  2012: The Year in Photos, Part 1 of 3           
                                                                                 Part 2 of 3
                                                                                 Part 3 of 3

Huffington Post: 40 Most Powerful Photos Of 2012

HuffPost photo editors curated a slideshow of serious eye candy from Getty Images and the Associated Press


The Best Photography Blog Posts of 2012

BuzzFeed: The 45 Most Powerful Images Of  2012

Reuters: Best photos of the year 2012

The Most Popular Cameras and Settings for Reuters’ 2012 Photos of the Year

Best Pictures of the Year from Agence France Presse

VII photographers present their best images, shot or released in 2012

UK Telegraph: The 50 best images of the London 2012 Olympic Games

UK: Landscape Photographer of the Year 2012

British photographer wins Travel Photographer of the Year 2012 title

Best of 2012 - National Geographic Magazine Photos of the Year

National Geographic:  Best Space Pictures of 2012: Editor's Picks

National Geographic: Best Camera-Trap Pictures of 2012

Top 10 Kisses of 2012 [PICS]

fotostrada: Collection of the BEST images of 2012 by the 'fotostrada' collective .


BOOKS

Conscientious: My favourite photobooks in 2012
TIME’s Best of 2012: The Photobooks We Loved

Blake Andrews: Under The Radar: Best Photo Books 2012

Guardian: The best photography books of 2012: an alternative selection

Photobookstore UK My Best Books of 2012

Elizabeth Avedon: 2012 HOLIDAY BOOKS: A Few New Favorites

American Photo: Books of the Year: John MacLean's New Colour Guide

Photo District News:  Indie Photo Books of the Year:

                                    Part 2

 

                                    Notable Photo Books of 2012: Part 1

Feature Shoot:  Top 15 Photo Books of 2012

The Photo Book Club  B*@t of 2012

The Daily Beast: Best Coffee Table Books of 2012

phot(0)lia: Photobooks 2012

Shane Lavalette:   Ten (Or Twenty) of The Best Photobooks of 2012

John Edwin Mason: Photo Book of the Year, 2013: Gordon Parks' Collected Works

Announcing photo-eye's Best Books 2012

UK Guardian: The Best Photobooks of 2012

Top 10+ photobooks of 2012 by Alec Soth

Mrs. Deane’s years in books: a Listmas tale

Marc Urust: One more list of 2012 books


MISC

Bag News Notes: Best Bag Posts of the Year: Oversight in the Media-Military Marriage

A Curator: 2012: Some of the best from this year's features

Stellazine: The Favorite Photo Shows of 2012

British Journal of Photography: The 50 best photography products of 2012

Carole Evans Photography: Highlights of 2012

Photoshelter: 57 Reasons to Love Photography in 2012

The Future Of Photography: 7 Images From 2012 That Should Make You Excited For 2013 And Beyond

2012  Year on Twitter

Poynter: The best (and worst) media errors and corrections of 2012

Best art exhibitions of 2012, No 5 – Documenta 13 in Kassel, Germany

Best art exhibitions of 2012, No 9 – SFMoMA presents Cindy Sherman

Best art shows of 2012, No 7 – Everything Was Moving at the Barbican

Bloomberg: Hot Art: Top 10 Auctions of 2012

2012 list of 19 things they didn't want you to know about photography but are actually true


Related:

The most unforgettable images of the year / Best photographs of 2011