Ellis Island

One of the wonderful aspects of my 4 weeks away in September was the “book-ended” photography – the Great Bear Rainforest at the beginning, and a unique photo-shoot with Joe McNally at Ellis Island, at the end.

Ellis Island is next to Liberty Island in New York Harbor. Between 1892 and 1954 it was the busiest immigrant inspection station, processing around 12M immigrants into the US through the Ports of New York and New Jersey.

Most immigrants spent 3-4 hours there, having landed on ships coming from Europe and Asia. Those that were unwell (TB, measles, psychiatric problems etc) were held there until they were well – of course some never left, and were buried nearby. It was a place of hope, not dread – and the shining Statue of Liberty is right next door, a beacon for those coming through Ellis Island, and for those staying there.

The north side of the island hosts the National Museum of Immigration that is open to the public. The south side of the island, including the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, is slowly being restored. It is this south side that we were photographing, an area that is not generally open to the public. Hence we required guides, closed shoes and hard-hats – alongside our cameras/lenses and tripods.

The day was organised by Liza & Ari (Iceland, Vienna/Prague – and Vietnam in March 2020). This time we were with the amazing Joe McNally (Website), and the location definitely took me right out of my photography comfort zone.

I was in an Uber at 5:30am on Thursday morning, and down at Battery Park 20 mins later. It was still an hour before sunrise, and very, very dark. And here I was trying to find a group of photographers in the dark, in a park, next to the sea, in lower Manhattan. Thank you Telstra for the phone plan that makes local phone calls easy, so that Liza was able to “guide me in!”.

It was good to meet up with the others, including some that I’ve travelled with before. As required, we were all there before 6am so that our credentials could be verified, and the sniffer dogs could check us out before we went through airport-type security and onto the ferry. It’s a very short ferry ride, but one of the joys of being so early was the sun rising behind, and lighting up, the Manhattan skyline. It was a beautiful start to a warm fall day – even the Statue of Liberty on nearby Liberty Island, was holding her lamp up high to catch the morning sun!

Ari and Joe were waiting for us as we stepped onto the Island. Then it was off to our “classroom” for our first briefing – we were all itching to get going while the light was soft and gentle – it wouldn’t last long.

Joe urged us to think about creating a story with our photos, taking you (my patient readers and viewers) on a journey to understand what this island meant then and its importance today. Please feel free to let me know if I’ve succeeded or not.

Our first stop was a building used by the administrators that lived there when it was active. The living rooms, bedrooms, small bathrooms and even a kitchen are now very tired, paint peeling off the ceilings and walls, and the floors in need of major sanding, or replacement. The sunlight streamed in through broken glass and glassless window frames, creating interesting reflections and shadows. There was a chair in a corner – perhaps one of the doctors had sat in it, wondering what was in store for them that day. Or perhaps she or he worried about a patient they’d been treating.

Photography-wise, this was definitely “still-life” and a challenge to find interesting aspects. I watched others taking their photos from all kinds of angles, using wide angle lenses, then zooming in on detail, bracketing a single photo to take it at various apertures and shutter speeds.

Joe’s familiarity with Ellis Island comes from his many visits there. He is doing a project now for the Save Ellis Island Foundation, and knows the ins and outs, how the light changes across rooms, the places that have glimpses of the outside, and those that would be dark and difficult for us to photograph.

Soon I was in a room that Joe has photographed many times – it was lovely and bright with beautiful views of Lady Liberty through two windows, and a chair near one. He showed us how to compose a view of Liberty from a particular angle – I tried, and then I tried again. Something wasn’t right. So I showed him one of the 6 or so I’d taken, starting by saying “I love the colour I’m capturing, but the composition is lousy.” He looked at the camera, looked at me and laughed, “yes, no argument there!”

Great … the first, and possibly the only photo of mine that Joe McNally ever sees, has lousy composition! And although he tried to show me with my camera (his focus was off though), this specific angle is one that I never managed to get quite right, although I do like one I took from another part of this room.

Never mind! The day is still young! Onwards to different rooms, different light, different angles – some with doors that opened to the outside, some with windows that had fabulous views of the water and New Jersey off in the distance. And some that were quite closed off, their windows covered with boards to protect the old or broken glass. I found a series of doorways where the light moved across the walls as people walked by – nice. Others where we’d kicked up some dust as we moved around, and the dust created nice sunbeams.

Over the day we visited three different areas in three 2 hour periods, retreating back to our classroom for breakfast and discussion at around 9:30am, and lunch at around 12 noon. The immensity of the place was almost overwhelming – large, two storey buildings with long corridors, smaller hallways coming off at right angles, leading to more small rooms or larger ones, depending on their purpose.

How easy it would be to get lost here. And as the sun rose higher in the sky, the light became less forgiving, and the outside temperature increased.

The buildings where people were detained with TB were quite confronting – each room was small, designed for one bed, and each had two sinks – perhaps one for the patient and one for the nurses & doctors, thus reducing cross-contamination. Every room had high ceilings and windows – at least they would have had daylight streaming in on sunny days, but the long grey New York winters would have been difficult.

The measles “wards” were large enough for 20 or more beds in each, with old hydronic radiators still in place along each wall. Some of the paint colours were interesting – the “blue room,” with its light blue peeling paint facing south, while those with light green paint face north, the colours apparently copied from old England!

Joe encouraged us to “go in tight,” take photos of details – the texture of the peeling paint, even door knobs. I saw texture in glass that looked like snowflakes – this was fun.

Large picture windows provided natural light along the long corridors – these were places that overlooked the gardens below. Interestingly, corridors that joined some of the buildings were curved, adding a “gentleness” to the architecture, and providing opportunities for small gardens to pop up in unlikely places between parts of buildings.

After lunch we retreated to the morgue – an unlikely place for a class on adding light and colour to portrait photos, but why not? The tiered concrete steps were good for sitting on and provided a good view. Only the eight cupboard doors with long shelves into the wall, were an indication of what this had once been.

Nearby was a room with an enormous autoclave, one wall nearby and a group of metal lockers were papered with old photos. This was close to some of the labs where research into infectious diseases continued for some years, with support from the National Institutes of Health.

As the day progressed and I learned more about Ellis Island, I found more opportunities to photograph. This was helped by focusing on this being a place of hope and opportunity, rather than one of internment that it had appeared to be earlier in the day.

By 3pm most of us were spent – it had been a long and busy day. And for many of those with me, it had been an emotional one – they are children or grandchildren of immigrants who had come through Ellis Island to start a new life.

As I flew back to Australia the following day, I worked through some of the photos and reflected on what we’d seen. This is the place that was a new beginning for millions of people – it is a vital part of the history of the United States. How privileged I was to have been able to see this place in this way. A very big thank you to Liza, Ari and Joe.

For more information - Liberty Ellis Foundation (Website)

To see my photos - Website