The Historic New Orleans Collection
Williams Research Center
410 Chartres Street
New Orleans, LA 70130
Stephen Wilkes Lecture
December 11, 2010
3-5pm
Free and open to the public :: Advance registration recommended
Photographer Stephen Wilkes will be sharing a selection of his personal work, including his Ellis Island collection, China series and most recent work documenting the Gulf Oil Spill. His talk will review the evolution of his fine arts career. Stephen’s photographs have been exhibited in galleries and museums across the nation and featured in the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Life, Time, London Sunday Times, and Travel + Leisure. His photographs can be found on permanent collection at The George Eastman House Intl. Museum of Photography & Film, Library of Congress, Dow Jones Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and The Jewish Museum, New York. His most recent monograph, Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom was named as one of the 5 Best Photography Books by Time Magazine.
Bio:
Stephen Wilkes has been highly recognized for his fine arts photography with three major exhibitions in the last four years. Margaret Loke of the New York Times writes, “Each of the rooms that he photographs with care seems to have its own luxurious color scheme. Mr. Wilkes sees pleasing palettes of impressionism in walls and ceilings of peeling paint.”
Wilkes was recognized as the 2004 Fine Art Photographer of the Year at the Lucie Awards. Wilkes has been recognized by the photographic and design industry with additional awards including the Alfred Eisenstadt Awards for Magazine Photography, Photographer of the Year, Eastcoast, Adweek Magazine, honors in Graphis Magazine, and the award of excellence in Communication Arts. Wilkes was also featured in Communication Arts in March of 2001.
In 1999 Wilkes completed a personal project photographing the south side of Ellis Island. With his photographs and video work, Wilkes was able to help secure $6 million in funding to restore the south side of the island. The work was exhibited in April of 2001 in a one-person exhibition at The Soho Triad Fine Arts Gallery, in New York. His exhibition on the exploration of the nude form in the jungles and on the lava flows of Hawaii ran in December of 2002.
Wilkes shoots advertising and fashion campaigns for many of the country’s leading advertising agencies and companies, including Arizona Jeans, California Tourism, New York Stock Exchange American Express, ABB, Honda, and many others. His editorial work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Time Magazine, and Sports Illustrated.
He began working on his own at age 15 and attended Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications, graduating in 1980. In 1983, Wilkes opened his studio in Manhattan.
This lecture is generously sponsored by Canon.
