© All image rights are retained by the respective photographer on this page. Please contact the photographer directly for any usage or redistribution arrangements.
Ellis Island: Ghosts of FreedomExcerpt from Introduction by Former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley“Over a five-year period, New York photographer Stephen Wilkes explored and photographed the rooms of the hospital complex. In stark contrast to the duotone photographs that typically define the memory of the immigrant experience, Stephen Wilkes’ images offer a startlingly new and at times disturbing vision of the so-called golden gateway to America. Wilkes’ photographs, steeped in ephemeral island light, unveil for the first time the unforgettable, often chilling details of past lives in now abandoned rooms.”