For nearly fifty years the south side of Ellis Island stood in neglect; a surreal sculpture of vines, leaves and moss, mingled with shattered plaster, curling paint and rusted iron. In the shaddow of Ellis Island's Great Hall, the south side housed the ruins of a vast hospital: the contagious disease wards and isolation rooms for the people whose spirits carried with them across oceans but whose bodies failed them, a stone's throw from paradise.
Photographer Stephen Wilkes first crossed paths with the Island on an hour-long editorial assignment, it quickly transformed into a five-year passion. He photographed every corner, every crevice, in every imaginable natural light. It is in the light that lays the history of Ellis Island. In some as yet unknown calculus of time and energy, when the light came through the rooms, it energized the past.
Stephen Wilkes is an acclaimed advertising and fine art photographer. He is represented by galleries in New York, Los Angels, and Santa Fe. His work is in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress and the International Museum of Photography in the George Eastman House.
This set inludes 12 postcards
