Showing posts with label Stephen Wilkes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stephen Wilkes. Show all posts

Saturday, September 22, 2018

STEPHEN WILKES: ELLIS ISLAND, GHOSTS OF OUR ANCESTORS


Isolation ward, Statue of Liberty, Island 3, Ellis Island



On the 20th anniversary of Stephen Wilkes documentary project photographing the abandoned buildings on the southern side of Ellis Island, and with the future of immigration and refuge in America in contention, Wilkes takes us on an unforgettable journey through our collective past that reminds us how we became the diverse nation that we are today and asks us to reflect on our own humanity.
Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is pleased to present “Ellis Island: Ghosts of Our Ancestors”, a timely exhibition which opens with a public reception for the photographer on Friday, October 5, from 5 – 7 PM. The exhibition continues through November 18.

Twelve million people passed through Ellis Island from 1892 until its closing in 1954, and tens of millions of Americans today are descendants of immigrants who were thought deplorable by those already here. Wilkes's powerful images of the underbelly of the island—a purgatory between freedom and captivity—ask us to reflect on the defining experiences of millions. Photographed over five years beginning in 1998, the photographs are a visual history of the immigration center and adjoining hospital which grew to 22 medical buildings spread across three islands. In the era before antibiotics, tens of thousands of immigrant patients were healed from illness before becoming citizens. Neglected for almost fifty years, the buildings were in a state of extreme disrepair: lead paint peeled from the ceilings and walls, vines and trees grew through the floorboards, detritus and debris littered the hallways. In rooms long-abandoned, Wilkes captured a spirited new vision of this gateway to freedom.


“I photographed every corner, every crevice, in every light. Strange things happened. I’d photograph a mirror attached to a wall for half a century, only to return and find the mirror shattered. I’d photograph a shoe, only to come back and find it disappeared. I photographed the 500-foot long spine of the hospital, Corridor #9, a long tunnel of decay. In the photograph of it, you’ll see a golden glow of sunshine warming the walls at the far end. In all the times I went back, I’ve never seen this glow again, nor can I figure out its origin.

What I was obsessed to do, almost as if I was chosen to do it, was document the light and the energy and living spirit of this place. I added no light of my own, nor any artifice of the photographic craft. I wasn’t simply interested in graphics born from the patina of ruin. I just wanted to record the place as I found it.”


– Stephen Wilkes

Friday, January 26, 2018

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 

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.

Monday, December 12, 2016

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.

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

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:



Tuesday, August 2, 2016

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.

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Brooklyn Museum: Who Shot Sports: A Photographic History, 1843 to the Present



George Silk
Kathy Flicker's perfect 10 point dive at Princeton University's Dillon Gym Pool
©Time Inc.


Via The Brooklyn Museum

July 15, 2016–January 8, 2017
Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing, 4th Floor

Who Shot Sports: A Photographic History, 1843 to the Present is one of the first museum exhibitions to put sports photographers in the forefront and is the most comprehensive presentation of sports photography ever organized. It encompasses approximately 230 works—from daguerreotypes and salted paper prints to digital images—that capture the universal appeal of sports, highlighting unforgettable moments of drama and excitement from around the globe.

The 170 photographers represented in Who Shot Sports include Richard Avedon, Al Bello, David Burnett, Rich Clarkson, Georges Demeny, John Dominis, Dr. Harold Edgerton, Rineke Dijkstra, Brian Finke, Toni Frissell, Ken Geiger, LeRoy Grannis, David Guttenfelder, Ernst Haas, Charles "Teenie" Harris, Walter Iooss, Jr., Heinz Kleutmeier, Stanley Kubrick, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Neil Leifer, Étienne-Jules Marey, Bob Martin, Martin Munkacsi, Edward Muybridge, Catherine Opie, Leni Reifenstahl, Robert Riger, Alexander Rodchenko, Howard Schatz, Flip Schulke, George Silk, Barton Silverman,  Andy Warhol, and Stephen Wilkes.

"Today, it is the photographers who give sports its indelible image," says Gail Buckland, who returns as guest curator after the 2009 exhibition Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present. "Seeing athletic greatness, we both recognize our personal physical limitations and delight in bodies and minds taken to new heights. To play and to watch sports is to be in the moment. Still photographers are masters of moments."

Who Shot Sports: A Photographic History, 1843 to the Present is organized by guest curator Gail Buckland. The Brooklyn presentation is coordinated by Lisa Small, Curator of Exhibitions, Brooklyn Museum.
A companion book of the same title, published by Alfred A. Knopf, accompanies the exhibition.


Monroe Gallery of Photography, in conjunction with the Briscoe Center for American History, is pleased to host a special exhibition and book signing celebrating Neil Leifer's most recent book, "Relentless”. The exhibition opens with a reception and book signing with the photographer on Friday, July 29, 5 – 7:30 PM.

Monday, May 2, 2016

TASCHEN: Stephen Wilkes: A Day in The Life

Serengeti, Tanzania, Day to Night, 2015
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.

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Monroe Gallery at The 2016 AIPAD Photography Show April 13 - 17


Lone Factory Worker, China, 2005
Stephen Wilkes: Lone Worker, China, 2005


Monroe Gallery of Photography is very pleased to be again exhibiting at the AIPAD Photography Show, this year April 13 – 17 in New York at the Park Avenue Amory, 643 Park Avenue. The gallery will be in booth # 104.

Celebrating its 36th year in 2016, The Photography Show features more than 80 of the world’s leading photography art galleries.

Monroe Gall ill be exhibiting specially selected photographs from the gallery's renowned collection of 20th and 21st Century master photojournalists. Among the highlights selected for this year's exhibition are: vintage prints from Spider Martin alongside other important civil rights photographs; a rare selection of never-before-seen vintage prints of photographs taken by Bill Eppridge on the night Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated;  a rare vintage print made from the original negative of the iconic image from World War II by George Silk "An Australian soldier, Private George "Dick" Whittington, is aided by Papuan orderly Raphael Oimbari, near Buna on 25 December 1942";  several large-scale color photographs from Stephen Wilkes’  acclaimed China and Day To Night collections, and an exciting previously unseen large scale photograph of David Bowie taken in New Mexico in 1975 during the filming of “The Man Who Fell To Earth” that is featured in the forthcoming book “Bowie: Photographs by Steve Schapiro” which will be published in April, 2016 by PowerHouse Books, and many other exciting new additions to the gallery’s collection.

Steve Schapiro: David Bowie,  New Mexico, 1975
(“The Man Who Fell To Earth’)

We hope to see you!

Monday, March 21, 2016

SPRING NEWS FROM MONROE GALLERY OF PHOTOGRAPHY, SANTA FE, NM



The ultimate digital magazine where everything about photography is published daily, L’Oeil de la Photographie, recently feature the gallery’s current exhibition “Vintage Photojournalism”. The feature may be viewed here.

  Hilton Hotel, Michigan Avenue, August 1968, Democratic Convention

  “Vintage Photojournalism” is a major exhibition of rare vintage prints from the 20th Century’s master photojournalists. The exhibit features unique, one of a kind prints that were used to fill requests for reproduction in LIFE magazine and other major publications, many with important historic information inscribed and stamped on the verso (backside) of the photograph. The exhibit continues through April 24.
We are very pleased to announce that the gallery is now representing the Spider Martin civil rights collection.  Alabama photojournalist, James "Spider" Martin, (b. 1939 - 2003) was employed as a staff photographer at The Birmingham News during one of the most eventful periods in American history. Martin covered key events during the 1960s civil rights movement, most notably Bloody Sunday and other historic incidents from the Selma to Montgomery march. His civil rights photographs are in included in the many collections, including the Birmingham Civil Rights museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.

While a small number of Spider's civil rights era photographs have been published and exhibited, most of these dramatic and moving images have never been shown publicly because of their controversial nature for the time.
Dr. King delivering his speech to the triumphant crowd of marchers

Monroe Gallery of Photography will be again exhibiting at the AIPAD Photography Show April 13 – 17 in New York at the Park Avenue Amory, 643 Park Avenue. The gallery will be in booth # 104. Celebrating its 36th year in 2016, The Photography Show features more than 80 of the world’s leading photography art galleries. We will be exhibiting specially selected photographs from the gallery's renowned collection of 20th and 21st Century master photojournalists. Among the highlights selected for this year's exhibition are: vintage prints from Spider Martin alongside other important civil rights photographs; a rare selection of never-before-seen vintage prints of photographs taken by Bill Eppridge on the night Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated;  a rare vintage print made from the original negative of the iconic image from World War II by George Silk "An Australian soldier, Private George "Dick" Whittington, is aided by Papuan orderly Raphael Oimbari, near Buna on 25 December 1942";  several large-scale color photographs from Stephen Wilkes’ Bethlehem Steel, China, and Day To Night collections, and an exciting previously unseen large scale photograph of David Bowie taken in New Mexico in 1975 during the filming of “The Man Who Fell To Earth” that is featured in the forthcoming book “Bowie: Photographs by Steve Schapiro” which will be published April 26, 2016 by PowerHouse Books, and many other exciting new additions to the gallery’s collection.

Steve Schapiro: David Bowie,  New Mexico, 1975 ( “The Man Who Fell To Earth’)

 We would like to invite you to visit the AIPAD Show as our guests, please contact the gallery for complimentary admission to the Show.

We will round out the Spring season with the exhibition “Alfred Eisenstaedt: Classics and seldom-seen photographs”: April 29 – June 26. Renowned as the father of modern photojournalism, Alfred Eisenstaedt’s career as a preeminent photojournalist spanned eight decades. The exhibition of more than 50 photographs features numerous classic images, several little-known gems, and never-before-exhibited photographs.
We hope to see you in the coming months, and please do not hesitate to contact us for any information.
Our best,

Sid and Michelle Monroe








Friday, February 19, 2016

"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, Tanzania, Day to Night, 2015

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.



Interview Highlights

On watching animal life unfold during the Serengeti shoot

Times Square,  New York, 2010

Times Square, NYC, Day to Night, 201   

          
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.

Paris, Tournelle Bridge, Day To Night

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.

London, View from the Savoy, Day To Night

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.




Ellis Island, then and now

The Picture Show

Eerie Ellis Island, Then And Now



Tuesday, January 5, 2016

National Geographic PROOF Features Stephen Wilkes Day To Night Series


Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, 2015
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.

 Animals converge at a watering hole in Seronera National Park, Serengeti, Tanzania
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

             

Sunday, December 20, 2015

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




Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, 2015
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.

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



(Slide Show Link)

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.”


Yosemite, Tunnel View, Day To Night 2014
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.


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

Serengeti, Tanzania, Day to Night, 2015
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.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

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 100th 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.

Monday, November 16, 2015

Stephen Wilkes: Photography is dead? Hogwash.

Ottawa Citizen     Homepage
Via The Ottawa Citizen
Peter Simpson - The Big Beat

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

The fourth lecture in the 2015 series "Contemporary Conversations" will feature Stephen Wilkes



Via CNW

OTTAWA, Nov. 5, 2015 /CNW/ - The Embassy of the United States in Ottawa and the U.S. Department of State's Office of Art in Embassies, in partnership with the National Gallery of Canada (NGC), will welcome renowned American artist Stephen Wilkes for the fourth lecture in the Contemporary Conversations series on November 19.

Contemporary Conversations (#artconvoAIE) brings internationally recognized American artists to Canada for a series of public lectures at the NGC intended to stimulate conversation around issues that transcend borders, and topics that inspire, teach, and create connections. Works by the first four artists in the series are also included in the Art in Embassies exhibition at the residence of U.S. Ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman and Mrs. Vicki Heyman. Wilkes' photograph Corridor # 9, Island 3, Ellis Island (1998) is currently featured at the residence, while another of his works, Presidential Inauguration, Day to Night (2013), can be found on display at the Embassy.

Wilkes, an internationally acclaimed fine art and commercial photographer, is well-known for capturing iconic images of American spaces and places – from Ellis Island to a Presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C. This latest edition of the speaker series will be moderated by U.S. Ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman.

"Stephen is on the cutting edge of technique in digital fine art photography, and he uses his camera and talent to preserve memories and to conserve treasures. His photographs strike me first with their sheer beauty, and then I am drawn in deeper by the subtext of the work. Bruce and I have been fans of his work for years - we continue to feel inspired by the impact of his images and how they provoke conversations that can serve as an impetus for change." said Vicki Heyman.

"We are delighted to have Stephen Wilkes at the National Gallery of Canada as part of the Contemporary Conversations series, which has been so successful.  The conversation between this accomplished American artist and the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Mr. Bruce Heyman, promises to be engaging," said National Gallery of Canada Director and CEO Marc Mayer.

In February 2015, Marie Watt was the first artist featured in the Contemporary Conversations series at the NGC in Ottawa. Nick Cave participated in second installment in May and Eric Fischl spoke in September.  

Registration for the Stephen Wilkes lecture opened October 19. Free admission: RSVP before 12 November at rsvp@gallery.ca to reserve your spot. Please note that guests will be seated in order of arrival. Empty seats will be filled 10 minutes prior to the start of the event. There will also be a live broadcast of the event in the adjacent Lecture Hall.

More information about the series can be found at www.gallery.ca/conversations/en.

About Stephen Wilkes

For more than two decades Stephen Wilkes has been widely recognized for his fine art and commercial photography. In 1999 he completed a personal project photographing the unrestored areas of Ellis Island: the ruined

landscape of the infectious disease and psychiatric hospital wings, where children and adults alike were detained before they could enter the United States. Through his photographs and video work, Wilkes has inspired and helped secure six million dollars toward the restoration for the south side of the island.

Wilkes' latest body of work entitled Day to Night embodies epic cityscapes with fleeting moments captured throughout the transition from day to the night.  His photographic process entails continuously shooting from one camera angle for approximately fifteen hours. A select group of images are then electronically blended into one photograph. Each photograph takes approximately four months to create.
 
Stephen Wilkes "Remnants" continues at Monroe Gallery of Photography through November 22.

Monday, November 2, 2015

Stephen Wilkes in National Geographic: Laos to National Parks

Bomb Craters, Laos, 2015
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.

Thursday, October 8, 2015

OCTOBER NEWS

 

Dear Friends:

The New Yorker featured the new Stephen Wilkes “Remnants” exhibit this past Friday, you can see the feature here.

"I’ve often found that there is great power in telling difficult stories in a beautiful way. Interest in any given story wanes so quickly, yet it’s only through taking the time to go deeper that we get to a place of real understanding. There are moments in journalism when the media captures the visual details of a disaster, yet sometimes misses the true scale of devastation. It’s my hope that these images serve as a wakeup call — whether that call is about global warming, infrastructure, or just the recognition that the world is changing, it’s a reminder that we need to take special care of our fragile world."  -- Stephen Wilkes

Also included in the exhibit is Stephen’s newest Day To Night image, taken in the Serengeti, Tanzania, earlier this year.


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

Recycled Cans
 
 
 Stephen Wilkes: Recycled Aluminum Can Study #1

The “Remnants” exhibit will continue through November 22.

Later this month, Steve Schapiro will be signing copies of his new book BLISS in the gallery on Friday, October 30, from 5 – 7 pm. In Bliss: An Exploration of the Current Hippie Counterculture & Transformational Festivals, Steve Schapiro, famous for his photographs of the 60s--including Haight-Ashbury and the hippies of that era--documents the hippies of today and their lives in and out of transformational festivals. With a specific focus on a subculture of the current hippie counterculture known as "Bliss Ninnies," these individuals are focused on meditation and dancing as a way to reach ecstatic states of joy. The book features images from festivals across the country and provides an overview of a new contemporary hippie life within America. “The 60s are still here. You just have to find where.

Recently, “BLISS” was featured on the TIME LightBox, and several of Steve Schapiro’s iconic civil rights photographs were in this summer’s acclaimed  “The Long Road: From Selma to Ferguson” exhibition.

 

Fairy in the woods, Rainbow Gathering, Michigan, 2001
Steve Schapiro: Fairy in the woods, Rainbow Gathering, Michigan, 2001

 

Our best,
Sid and Michelle Monroe





 

MONROE GALLERY OF PHOTOGRAPHY
112 Don Gaspar
Santa Fe, NM 87501 USA
505.992.0800

www.monroegallery.com