ABOUT WILKO
Originally from U.K., Wilkinson relocated to the States in 1987. After studying Media, Communications and Technology at East Stroudsburg University he worked with film studios and film promotion in both Philadelphia and London. Returning the to States, Wilkinson pursued a deeper understanding in corporate communications with design and graphics. As new technologies became more accessible, Wilkinson worked with video production and programming, but directed his interest to photography. Wilkinson works out of his studio in Trenton, New Jersey and on location.
Publications include: The New York Times, Huffington Post, Financial Times, NBC New York (Nightly News), PAW (Princeton Alumni Weekly), Stanford University Press, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, The Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, SaturdaysNYC. and New Philosopher magazine.
I saw a lecture by the acclaimed photographer Tina Barney and one of the things I remember her saying was that as a photographer your self portrait is very important, and to do them on occasion. How would your life as a photographer look if you didn’t have any? I don’t take many pictures of myself – I think a lot of photographers are like that, but I’ve started to – so I added a few ‘selfies’ into this image gallery.
There’s been a few occasions though that I’ve had to set the camera on timer mode and test the lighting I’m working with. The black and white ones, I altered digitally – either re-photographed the image off a screen to get a lower resolution effect, or cranked the contrast. So that’s my claim about narcissism and self portraits.
Lately, I’ve been into seeing photographs of ‘his-nibs’ in action – perhaps to prove that I do work – on occasion – for intelligent people who know how to spend their money and for the poets and paupers who make their lives worth living. Seeing so many beautiful subjects so thoroughly twisted up in themselves might inspire a series of myself staring into puddles – who knows- there are so many ways to fall in love. I really like it when people take pictures of me working – I love what I do so much.
So here’s a bog standard bio of sorts:
With a background in print media and photography, Andrew Wilkinson has worked in marketing communications for 15+ years. Starting in London for a public relations and design firm specializing in film clients such as Disney and Virgin Interactive (worked on Toy Story etc.). In New York, Wilkinson worked for Ernst & Young LLP in creative services and furthered his media experience with Merrill Lynch in Princeton. After that creative death sentence he made some money and quit on Cinco De Mayo – which as been a very special day ever since, ten years later.
Here’s another one:
Writing a bio can be a real drag, but it’s as necessary as a drag on my cigarette. When you are a photographer it seems as though the ideas and creativity in the images should do all of the talking. If a picture is worth a thousand words I guess that makes me loquacious, or annoyingly chatty, so I’ll limit this description of myself to a quarter portion of a polaroid and save the heavy frames and museum glass for my real words- images.
Following an idyllic life in England working for a design firm on projects like Toy Story, I worked for Ernst & Young LLP in creative services in New York and for Merrill Lynch in Princeton. I quit that lucrative, predominantly beige, creative death sentence on Cinco De Mayo and haven’t looked back.
I have curated, exhibited, and sold internationally, specializing in pop art sculptures and photography. My work has appeared in the NY Times and through my unfailing pickiness, I’ve managed to create a body of work whose strength lies in its persistent flirtation with the commercial.
CLIENTS
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
ZIET MAGAZIN (GERMANY)
MID-JERSEY MAGAZINE
MOXIE WOMAN MAGAZINE, SIEMENS CORPORATION
LENOX
PFIZER AVIATION
MERRILL LYNCH
ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON
MERCER ALLIANCE
MERCER STREET FRIENDS
HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP
STATE OF THE ART
WILLIAM TRENT HOUSE TRENTON DOWNTOWN ASSOCIATION
THE RYLAND INN
YARDLEY INN RESTAURANT MARSILIOS RESTAURANT
ERINI RESTAURANT
TRENTON AREA SOUP KITCHEN ST. MARY’S MEDICAL CENTER MIKE GRAEFF ARCHITECTS
CHAUNCEY CENTER
COMPASS HEALTH CARE
RAY DISCH REAL ESTATE
INFOREST COMMUNICATIONS
PASSAGE THEATRE
ADVANCED CEREMETRICS
BREGENZER BROTHERS
CAIRN CONSULTANTS
NEW HOPE ARTS
JZA+D ARCHITECTURE
ZANYA SPA SALON
LANDMARK HOSPITALITY
CARE TRENTON
photo by Tamara Torres