About

Since opening his studio in New York City in 1983, photographer Stephen Wilkes has built an unprecedented body of work and a reputation as one of America’s most iconic photographers, widely recognized for his fine art, editorial, and commercial work.

Wilkes’ early career interpretations of Mainland China, California’s Highway One, and impressionistic “Burned Objects” set the tone for a series of career-defining projects that catapulted him to the top of the photographic landscape.

In 1998, a one-day assignment to the south side of Ellis Island led to a 5-year photographic study of the island’s long abandoned medical wards where immigrants were detained before they could enter America. Through his photographs and video, Wilkes helped secure $6 million toward the restoration of the south side of the island. A monograph based on the work, Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom, was published in 2006 and was named one of TIME magazine’s 5 Best Photography Books of the Year. The work was also featured on NPR and CBS Sunday Morning.

In 2000, Epson America commissioned Wilkes to create a millennial portrait of the United States, “America In Detail,” a 52-day odyssey that was exhibited in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

Day to Night, Wilkes’ most defining project, began in 2009. These epic cityscapes and landscapes, portrayed from a fixed camera angle for up to 30 hours, capture fleeting moments of humanity as light passes in front of his lens over the course of a full day. Blending these images into a single photograph takes months to complete. Day to Night has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning as well as dozens of other prominent media outlets and with a grant from the National Geographic Society, was extended to include America’s National Parks in celebration of their centennial anniversary and Bird Migration for the 2018 Year of the Bird. Most recently a new grant was extended by the National Geographic Society for Day to Night of Canadian Species and Habitats at Risk in collaboration with The Royal Canadian Geographic Society. Day to Night: In the Field with Stephen Wilkes, a solo exhibition was exhibited at The National Geographic Museum in 2018. A solo exhibition, Day to Night: Photographs by Stephen Wilkes, was exhibited at the Fenimore Museum in Cooperstown in May 2023. Day to Night was published by TASCHEN as a monograph in 2019 and reprinted in 2023.

Wilkes’ work documenting the ravages of Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy has brought heightened awareness to the realities of global climate change. In 2013, after documenting Hurricane Katrina for the World Monuments Fund, the Annenberg Space for Photography commissioned him to revisit New Orleans. His photographs of Hurricane Sandy were exhibited in the 2014 Sink or Swim, Designing for a Sea of Change exhibition at the Annenberg Center for Photography.

Wilkes’ directorial debut, the documentary film, Jay Myself, world premiered at DOCNYC in November 2018. The film is an in-depth look into the world of photographer Jay Maisel and his move out of his 35,000 sq. foot building at 190 Bowery. Oscilloscope Laboratories acquired the North American rights, and the film opened at Film Forum in NYC in July 2019

Wilkes spoke at the TED2016: Dream Conference on his Day to Night series. His talk has over 2 million views, and he participated in the TED Countdown Summit in October 2020.

In 2021, Wilkes, a National Geographic Explorer, was commissioned by National Geographic to create a Day to Night of the Biden Harris Presidential Inauguration. The photograph was featured in National Geographic and exhibited at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery in NYC. His newest project for National Geographic ‘America the Beautiful,” was published in September 2022, and his photograph of Bears Ears National Monument was the cover image.

Wilkes traveled to Antarctica in 2021 to direct a short film on capturing the Total Solar Eclipse as an immersive experience for MSG Sphere. In 2023, Wilkes' Day to Night photographs were exhibited at Palazzo Blu in Pisa, Italy. Wilkes was a featured speaker at Festival Delle Scienze, Roma. The topic was documenting the effects of climate change through his photography.

Despite his intense dedication to personal projects, Wilkes continues to shoot advertising campaigns for the world’s leading agencies and corporations, including: Apple, Netflix, OppenheimerFunds, Gallup, SAP, IBM, Capital One, The New Yorker, Johnson & Johnson, DHL, American Express, Nike, Sony, Verizon, IBM, AT&T, Rolex, Honda. He has a robust following on Instagram of more than 590,000.

Wilkes’ extensive awards and honors include the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Magazine Photography, Photographer of the Year from Adweek Magazine, Fine Art Photographer of the Year 2004 Lucie Award, TIME Magazine Top 10 Photographs of 2012, Sony World Photography Professional Award 2012, Adobe Breakthrough Photography Award 2012 and Prix Pictet, Consumption 2014. His board affiliations include the Advisory Board of the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications, the Save Ellis Island Board of Directors, on which he served for 5 years, and the Goldring Arts Journalism Board.

His photographs are included in the collections of the George Eastman Museum, James A. Michener Art Museum, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Dow Jones Collection, Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation, Jewish Museum of NY, Library of Congress, Snite Museum of Art, The Historic New Orleans Collection, Museum of the City of New York, 9/11 Memorial Museum, Fenimore Art Museum, Art in Embassies, U.S. Department of State and numerous private collections. His editorial work has appeared in, and on the covers of leading publications such as the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Time, Fortune, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, and many others.

Wilkes was born in 1957 in New York. In 1980, he received his BS in photography from Syracuse University S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications with a minor in business management from the Whitman School of Management.