Stephen Wilkes (American, b.1957) is a photographer best known for his images of abandoned buildings. Born in New York and a graduate of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in 1999, Wilkes completed a series of photographs depicting the deteriorating sections of Ellis Island. His photographs helped secure $6 million for the restoration of the structures on the island.
In 2000, Epson America commissioned Wilkes to create a millennial portrait of the United States, which was shown in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
More recently, Wilkes created a series titled Day to Night in 2009. The works encompass sweeping cityscapes, capturing brief moments throughout the day and into the night. Wilkes photographs from one camera angle continuously for an entire day, blending the images into one seamless photograph. In 2013, he received a commission from the Annenberg Space for Photography to travel to New Orleans, and photograph the city’s ongoing recovery from Hurricane Katrina. This series was exhibited alongside other photos taken of the devastation of Hurricane Sandy in the 2014 exhibition “Sink or Swim: Designing for a Sea of Change.”
In addition to his work as a fine artist, Wilkes also shoots advertising campaigns for top international brands, including SAP, IBM, PepsiCo, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, American Express, Nike, Sony, Verizon, IBM, AT&T, Rolex, Honda, J.W.T., EuroRSCG, McCann Erickson, Ogilvy & Mather, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, and Rubin Postaer, among others. His photos have appeared in a number of leading publications, such as Vanity Fair, Time, and The New York Times Magazine.
Wilkes’s awards 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, and the Epson Creativity Award, among many others. Wilkes is a member of the Advisory Board of the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications and the Save Ellis Island Board of Directors. Wilkes’s work is in the permanent collection of the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Dow Jones Collection, the Griffin Museum of Photography, the Jewish Museum of New York, the Library of Congress, the Snite Museum of Art, the Historic New Orleans Collection, and numerous private collections.
