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Stephen Wilkes
Stephen Wilkes’ photographs have been exhibited in galleries and museums and featured in publications such as Vanity Fair, Time, Life, The New York Times Magazine, London Sunday Times, Sports Illustrated, and Travel + Leisure. His work is represented in the permanent collections of the International Museum of Photography in the George Eastman House, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Dow Jones Collection, Griffin Museum of Photography, Jewish Museum of New York, The James A. Michener Art Museum, Library of Congress and numerous private collections.
Through a journey of 5 years, Wilkes completed a personal project photographing the south side 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 America. Through his photographs and video work, Wilkes has inspired and helped secure $6 million in funding towards the restoration for the south side of the island.
Traveling throughout China, Stephen Wilkes has pictured a nation amidst behemoth transformation. Focusing on both rural and industrial settings—and the increasing number of areas where the two collide—the artist draws our attention to a changing way of life. While including a human element in his photographs and conscious of the individual lives affected by such a riptide of industrialization, the artist hopes to remind his audience of the real implications of such drastic economic and social shifts. At the same time show the incredible breath of this beautiful land.
In 2000, Epson America commissioned Wilkes to create a millennial portrait of the United States, a 52- day odyssey that resulted in a critically acclaimed exhibition that traveled to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
Educated at Syracuse University’s S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Wilkes awards and honors include the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Magazine Photography, Photographer of the Year from Adweek Magazine, Fine Art Photographer of the Year Lucie Award, and the Epson Creativity Award.
Wilkes also shoots advertising campaigns for many of the country’s leading agencies and corporations, including GE, 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.