Artist with savant syndrome recreates entire skylines from memory after a single glance

FOND DU LAC, Wis. (CBS 58) — For most people, a first impression fades.

But for London-based cityscape artist Stephen Wiltshire, one 20-minute helicopter flight is enough to capture an entire skyline in remarkable detail — not with a camera, but with his mind.

Wiltshire was diagnosed with autism as a child.

Although he did not speak until he was 5 years old, Wiltshire found his voice through art and developed an extraordinary talent for drawing.

Today, he is known as a human camera because of his incredible memory and ability to recreate entire skylines on paper after seeing them just once.

His gift is what experts call savant syndrome.

\"It\'s a spectacularly rare condition in which someone has a coexisting cognitive disability and super ability, such as music, math, art, memory, etc.,\" said Dr. Jeremy Chapman, medical director of the SSM Treffert Center in Fond du Lac, one of the world\'s leading research centers for savant syndrome. \"This shifts my understanding of human potential, and I just genuinely feel warm and inspired about mankind.\"

\"Stephen is like a breath of fresh air,\" said Wiltshire\'s sister, Annette. \"Life doesn\'t need to be complicated. We as people complicate things. Stephen just shows you how to uncomplicate it.\"

Annette told CBS 58 she is proud to have a brother who \"has made a difference to the world.\"

\"We got to go to Antarctica. We\'ve been to Japan, we\'ve been to Shanghai, Hong Kong, Jerusalem,\" Annette said. \"It just makes you realize how beautiful we are as individuals and as people and what we can create if we really put our minds to it.\"