Stephen Wilkes. Day and Night Automatic translate

Erarta Museum presents an exhibition by renowned American photographer Stephen Wilkes, who creates hyperrealistic photographs in which space and time can be literally discerned in exquisite detail.

Since Stephen Wilkes opened his own photography studio in New York in 1983, his creative method has undergone many changes. These changes culminated in the groundbreaking project "Day and Night," which straddles documentary, landscape, and fine art photography. Works from this project are featured in the exhibition. The starting point for this project was his work with renowned film director Baz Luhrmann.

In 1996, Wilkes, who specialized in advertising and feature photography for magazines, received a commission from American LIFE magazine to create a group portrait of the cast and crew of Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. Arriving on set, Wilkes discovered it was a small, square courtyard. Given the technical capabilities of the time, capturing a panoramic photo of all the participants was only possible by assembling a collage of 250 individual shots. Noticing that Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, posing for him in the center of the set, were also reflected in a mirror hanging on the wall, the photographer captured their kiss in the reflection as the final shot. Returning to his studio and manually stitching the resulting images together, Wilkes realized that he had captured in the finished work not just a single moment, as is typically the case in photography, but the entire, hours-long process of shooting, including the characters’ embrace on set and their kiss in the mirror. The author was able to fully realize the idea that was born then only years later, when the development of digital photography made it possible to combine in a single frame the events of an entire day or even a longer period of time.

The "Day and Night" series began in 2009. Each photograph is the result of meticulous planning and immense self-discipline. After selecting a suitable location and obtaining all the necessary permits, Wilkes rents a construction crane or aerial platform and spends 15 to 30 hours at a height of approximately 15 meters, capturing numerous shots from the same vantage point and angle. Having captured over a thousand "magical moments" (as he puts it), he begins the laborious process of processing the individual shots, merging them into a single image using digital technology. This process can take several months. Wilkes admits: "The ’Day and Night’ project combines everything I love about photography. It encompasses landscape and reportage photography, working with color, perspective, scale, architectural monuments, and — most importantly — history."

History has always been a powerful source of inspiration for Stephen Wilkes. One of his early series, in particular, is devoted to historical heritage sites. It includes photographs of abandoned hospital buildings on Ellis Island, which once housed immigrants arriving in the United States. These historic immigration buildings, through which nearly twelve million people passed between 1892 and 1954, are currently being restored: Wilkes’s efforts helped raise six million dollars for their restoration. His next historically significant photograph was an unusual report from the inauguration ceremony of US President Barack Obama, which took place in Washington, D.C., in 2013. When looking at this photograph, it’s worth noting the large screens that typically broadcast such events, as they each capture different events: here Michelle and the children watch the proceedings, here the newly elected president greets the crowd, here he takes the oath of office, and then addresses his compatriots. Interestingly, the filming took place from a fifteen-meter scissor lift, which turned out to be quite unstable: literally before every shot, Stephen had to secure his soles to the platform with industrial tape.

Wilkes’s fascination with history is reflected in another work on display at the exhibition. It is a panorama of the historic Venice Regatta, created in 2015. This colorful event is held annually to commemorate the aquatic extravaganza that celebrated the incorporation of Cyprus into the Venetian dominion in 1489. At that time, regattas were divided into simple competitions for rowers and gondoliers and so-called "grand regattas," held to mark important religious and secular holidays. This event is a highly formal water parade and is held according to strict rules that have remained unchanged for centuries. It features historic rowing vessels, and costumed rowers portraying residents of the Italian maritime republics of the past: Pisa, Genoa, and Venice. For this shot, the author chose a high vantage point above Venice’s Grand Canal, near the Accademia Bridge, so the silhouette of the Santa Maria della Salute church is visible in the background.

Natural landscapes feature prominently in the "Day and Night" series. Examples include "The Great July Melt" (Greenland, 2019), "Grizzly Bears" (British Columbia, 2018), "Tulips" (Bergen, 2016), "Flamingos" (Kenya, 2017), and "Serengeti National Park" (Tanzania, 2015).

The latter is especially significant for Stephen: the African photo safari was a deeply personal experience for him. He chose the Seronera region, near human habitation, rather than the park’s remote areas, as his location. Initially, the photographer set himself the goal of capturing the animals at the peak of their migration period, if possible. Wilkes spent 26 hours in a special hide located at an altitude of five meters, near a waterhole. The location was strategically chosen: the drought that had plagued the region for five weeks had brought numerous animals to the waterhole.

The resulting photograph is impressive in its truly biblical scale. Animals that typically feud in the savannah, even predators and their prey, such as lions and zebras, peacefully shared space at the water’s edge, which had become so precious to everyone. Despite the confined space, no one attacked or attempted to aggressively drive away anyone else, as we see in the frame. As Wilkes himself recalls, "…the animals didn’t even growl at each other. They seemed to understand something that’s not obvious to us humans: a resource as precious as water must be shared with everyone." The unusual format devised by the author for the "Day and Night" series allowed him to illustrate this idea as vividly as possible. As Stephen Wilkes says, this photo project "offers a new way of looking at the world, manipulating the space-time continuum and capturing an extended time period within a single frame."

About the author

One of the most prominent American photographers of our time, Stephen Wilkes was born in New York City in 1957. In 1980, he graduated from Syracuse University with a bachelor’s degree in photography and a minor in business administration.

Stephen began his career working for the renowned National Geographic publication as a photojournalist and wildlife photographer, but later became interested in other genres, including architectural and historical photography and fine art photography.

His extensive list of awards and achievements includes Adweek Photographer of the Year (1992), the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award (2000), Fine Art Photographer of the Year at the Lucie Awards (2004), a place in Time Magazine’s "Top 10 Photos of 2012," the Sony World Photography Award (2012), the Adobe Breakthrough Photography Award (2012), and the Prix Pictet Special Jury in the Consumer Society category (2014). Wilkes serves on the board of several prestigious organizations, from the Syracuse University School of Public Affairs and the advisory board of the Lola Goldring Arts Journalism Program to the nonprofit heritage partnership Save Ellis Island.

In addition to his own artistic projects, Stephen continues to shoot advertising for the world’s largest agencies and corporations. His clients include Rolex, Apple, Netflix, Gallup, SAP, Capital One, Johnson & Johnson, DHL, American Express, Nike, Sony, Verizon, IBM, AT&T, OppenheimerFunds, Zillow, and Honda.

The author’s works are held in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Museum of the City of New York, the Historic New Orleans Collection, the National September 11th Museum and Memorial, the James Fenimore Cooper Museum of Art, the George Eastman Museum, the James Michener Museum of Art, the Jewish Museum in New York, the Snaith Family Museum of Art, the Carl and Marilyn Thoma Art Foundation, the Library of Congress, the U.S. Department of State, Dow Jones, and numerous private collections. His photographs have appeared on the pages and covers of leading publications, including The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Time, Fortune, Travel + Leisure, and Condé Nast Traveler.

Stephen lives and works in Westport, Connecticut, and has collaborated with Holden Luntz Gallery (Palm Beach, USA), Robert Klein Gallery (Boston, USA), Monroe Gallery of Photography (Santa Fe, USA), The PhotoGallery (Halmstad, Sweden), and ARTITLEDcontemporary (Herpen, The Netherlands).