I first encountered the work of Stephen Wiltshire in an Autism documentary I watched a few years back and it blew my freakin’ mind. After being diagnosed with autism at the age of three, Wiltshire began to communicate through post-apocalyptic cityscape drawings. His teachers eventually learned that Wiltshire could not only draw city scenes with uncanny accuracy but without the use of visual aids.
Or to put it another way – in a one in a million coincidence Stephen Wiltshire possesses the duel gifts of artistic flair and a photographic memory. He can look at a target once and then draw a remarkably accurate and detailed picture of it – even if that “look” is a flyover in a helicopter. Thus far Wiltshire has drawn London, Berlin, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Rome, Sydney and Frankfurt but has now set his sights on the Big Apple.
You should check out the interviews with Wilthshire below (he’s got great taste in music) or you can watch a live stream of Wiltshire drawing NYC here. This guy is amazing.
