Sunday, 22 November 2009
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Photographic Memory and Autism
Stephen Wiltshire is from the United Kingdom. He's a talented man who, with one helicopter ride around a major city, can draw it straight from memory....nuances included.
His latest endevour includes the drawing of the New York City Skyline - a 20 foot panoramic view. Here's a video sharing his story:
I found that he's also done several other city skylines - you can see them on Youtube HERE. (his website is HERE)
Now, I find these stories of talented autistic people are very encouraging, as they provide a moment of hope.
What do you think?
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- From: edlives@xanga
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Comments (11)
I have seen several autistic people showing amazing skills such as painting, piano playing, calculating and memorizing, and they blew me away. I could never be as good at those things as them.
It's sad that not many people are willing to accept these wonderful autistic people into their communities, as we can see from the lack of comments in all these amazing Autisable blogs. People aren't so willing to talk about autism, or they are simply ignorant.
My Son Daniel can draw from memory but not quite this advanced yetJ I'm hoping he can make a career out of this visual skill someday. That would be awesome!!! His artwork from when he was 5 years old is on the cover of a training manual for an ABA therapy group. Right now he prefers to use dry erase markers which makes it really difficult to keep any of his drawings. ha
Stephen Wiltshire is a fantastic artist. He would have been a flash-in-the-pan curiousity for his ability to draw things he has seen only briefly on paper, but people pay thousands not for his photographic memory but his amazing artistic talent. Sir Hugh Casson (past president of the Royal Academy), described him once as "the best child artist in Britain".
It was never a case of him being accepted because he had this talent, more that people have appreciated it - and been in awe of it if you are an artist, like me - ever since it was made public.
@P1AutismMom - Take pictures, that would be an excellent record of his drawings.
@SavonDuJour@xanga - Thank you for the suggestion.
I have to be sneaky because he is very territorial about his drawings. It is odd but lately when he does draw on paper he crinkles it up and throws it away in the trash. One time he saw me digging in the trash and he got panicked so I pretended to put it back but he's too smart to fall for that. Another interesting thing is he will draw the same thing over and over and over again. I have a bunch of older pics uploaded on a computer that crashed. a few years ago. It's in the garage waiting to be resurrected someday. haha I need a better camera and he needs a bigger dry erase board. :)
it's amazing, it truly is
he's a savant.. i hear that this occurs in only about 10% of autistic people
Wow. That's really amazing.
I actually saw a documentary on Stephen and other autistic people who have incredible talents. They are called savants, and they are extremely rare. I heard of twin women who could tell you the weather, what they were wearing, and what major event happened that particular day from the last 50 years.
Wow, that is amazing. Thanks for sharing this. :)
i agree with you, this is very encouraging and inspiring.