I have selected photos from a series called Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom, by Stephen Wilkes. This photographer took photographs over a five year period of the hospital complex at Ellis Island. He did an exploration of light and studied how it effected the abandoned rooms throughout the different seasons. The spaces that he photographed had been abandoned for nearly 50 years. There is nothing more important in these images than the color and light. For many of us, photographs of Ellis Island have been limited to the black and white reprints in history books. The color adds an enormous amount of emotion, excitement, and eeriness to all the abandoned spaces.
This photo shows a juxtaposition between the growth coming through the windows and the snow that drifted in. Being able to study the space over a 5 year period gave Wilkes an insight into what would make each image extraordinarily striking.
Wilkes explains that this area was where nurses slept and that screen doors were used to help promote air movement in the hospital which was overwhelmed by teburculosis. The warmness of the colors have given the photograph an element that we normally don't see or think of when we view hospitals or places medical in nature. Even in pharmacutical ad photography, everything is usually much colder.
The color and light in each of these photographs brings new life to a space that has seemingly been dead for years.
To view the project and read the captions for each photo visit http://www.ellisislandghosts.com/
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