Stephen Wilkes. Day to Night. Art Edition No. 1–100 ‘Brooklyn Bridge, New York City, 2016’

If you were to stand in one spot at an iconic location for 30 hours and simply observe, never closing your eyes, you still wouldn’t be able to take in all the detail and emotion found in a Stephen Wilkes panoramic photograph. Not only does Wilkes shoot over 1,500 exposures from a fixed angle, he also distills this visual information afterward in his studio, painstakingly composing selected frames into a single image.

Day to Night presents 60 epic panoramas created between 2009 and 2018, shot everywhere from Africa’s Serengeti to the Champs-Élysées in Paris, from the Grand Canyon to Coney Island, from Trafalgar Square to Red Square. The book also features extraordinary details—works of art in their own right that highlight the stories contained within each image. A bride makes her way through Central Park; in Tanzania, zebras gather around a near-invisible watering hole during a drought; in Rio de Janeiro, surfers come and go while a man holds a sign reading “No more than two questions per customer.” “It is exactly these small stories, these details, that draw people into the photographs,” says Wilkes. Once discovered, these mini narratives lend each composition a personal, candid feel.

This Art Edition comes with a print of Brooklyn Bridge, New York City, 2016, numbered and signed by Wilkes. “It took more than two years to clear this location, where I spent 18 hours in a crane overlooking Brooklyn Bridge Park. I was positioned just underneath the Manhattan Bridge, and the toughest part of making this photograph was listening to the B and D trains pass overhead every 10 minutes,” recalls the photographer.

Art Edition (No. 1–100), with the print Brooklyn Bridge, New York City, 2016. The book and print are both numbered and signed by Stephen Wilkes.

Also available in an alternative Art Edition (No. 101–200) with the signed print Grand Canyon, Arizona, 2015, and as an unlimited XXL edition.