I’m working on an Ellis Island bibliography for my LIS 701 class. Here’s an interesting book that looks at the Ellis Island hospital buildings. I cannot wait to re-visit Ellis Island in January.
Ellis Island, in operation from 1892 to 1954, was the gateway to America for some 12 million people, many of whom fell ill and so were detained in a hospital on the southern end of the island. Wilkes photographed the disintegrating hospital and its environs between 1998 and 2003, using only a 4×5 view camera and natural light. The resulting images force us to question our assumptions about a historic immigration experience that informs the collective identity of many Americans. If it is possible to photograph emotion housed in spaces, Wilkes has done it, creating an empathetic portrait of longing and loss from peeling paint, empty chairs, and often ethereal light. The feeling of suspended attainment the patients must have felt is embedded in the buildings, which are themselves suspended between abandoned functionality and the oddly verdant invasion of ruin: ivy, rust, paint decay, weather, and time. Simple and elegant in design, the book contains 77 color images interleaved with moving quotes from former patients. A seven-page image directory includes Wilkes’s informative descriptions of the spaces and his sometimes eerie experience photographing them. Recommended for large public and academic fine art collections, the book could also cross over as a meaningful addition to American history collections.—
Retrieved from www.libraryjournal.com
[...] 3. Ellis Island Hospital: Sick immigrants were cared for at the hospital. Three hundred and fifty-three babies were born here. (Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom takes you inside the abandonded hospital buildings.http://mrschu81.wordpress.com/2007/11/05/ellis-island/) [...]