Stephen Wilkes Puzzle Times Square, New York, Day to Night

Photographer Stephen Wilkes is one of America's most iconic photographers, widely recognized for his fine art, editorial and commercial work. Day to Night, Wilkes's 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. A select group of these images are then seamlessly blended into one photograph, capturing the changing of time within a single frame.

“I like to describe myself as a collector of magical moments,” he has explained.  “My work is a combination of art & science.  I’m exploring the space time continuum within a 2 dimensional still photograph.  Time is something we’ve never been able to put our minds around, yet in a unique way these images begin to put a face on time.”

Stephen Wilkes has teamed up with 4D Brands International to launch a full puzzle collection of the Day to Night Series. With over forty epic images to come, you can expect to experience all the famous and historic places that Stephen has captured throughout his decade long project.

I created this photograph in June of 2010. It was a beautiful summer day, and a typically crowded afternoon with many of people in Times Square. Working from a roof I had been shooting for a few hours when a large group of police entered the Square and began clearing the streets due to a bomb scare. One of the only times I can imagine Times Square being completely void of people happened right in front of my camera – it was a remarkable sight to behold! Times Square appears canyon-like, and looking at the image you can see I checkerboard time, day and night alternate throughout the image.   Everything in the shadows of the buildings is night and everything in the sunlight is day.