CHRISTOPHER BARNES (American, 20th Century). Skylight , 1987. Exhibition C - print. 28 x 35 inches (71.1 x 88.9 cm). Ben...

Description

CHRISTOPHER BARNES (American, 20th Century)
Skylight , 1987
Exhibition C - print
28 x 35 inches (71.1 x 88.9 cm)
Benefitting Save Ellis Island

This image was displayed in a traveling exhibition to raise awareness of Ellis Island's deteriorating condition. The print was mounted on board and laminated for exhibition purposes.

Exhibition at Ellis Island Museum and National Park, New York, NY
November 15, 2006 thru March 15, 2007

When photographer Christopher Barnes first came to Ellis Island to document the main registry building in the 1980s, he discovered thirty additional buildings, mostly on Ellis Island's south side, that had suffered the ravages of time and weather since the island closed in 1954. Drawn to the silent but powerful spaces in what had been the largest U.S. Public Health Service hospital in the early 20th century, Barnes began a photographic odyssey to capture a moment in time that would soon change with future plans for the preservation and adaptive re-use of the Ellis Island Hospital Complex.

Shadow and Memory: Ellis Island's Un-restored Buildings, a collection of Barnes' work on Ellis Island, opened in the second floor gallery of the Ellis Island Immigration Museum on November 18, 2006.

The show included Barnes' photographs from the 1980s, when the hospital buildings stood empty, abandoned and deteriorated, and his recent work, documenting the progress to stabilize them, undertaken by Save Ellis Island, the National Park Service partner for the planning and adaptive re-use of these structures. One can only imagine the 1.2 million immigrants that passed through the corridors and buildings where they were inspected for disease and treated for illnesses like measles, tuberculosis and trachoma. These photographs illustrate the unique and compelling stories found within the hospital walls, stories of heartache and happiness in the context of compassionate care and treatment of ill immigrants and their families during Ellis Island's busiest years.

Offered in auction are the exhibition C-prints that were exhibited at Ellis Island in 2006. Their sale will support the ongoing effort by Save Ellis Island (SEI). SEI's mission is to preserve a powerful symbol of America's freedom and opportunity, giving it relevance to a much more diverse audience of citizens and visitors than ever passed through its doors a century or more ago. Ellis Island is shared by millions more than those who can trace a relative directly through Ellis Island and the campaign for Ellis Island plans to bring that narrative, broadly interpreted, to all.

Christopher Barnes, a resident of Maine, is the recipient of an award from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1988 for his Ellis Island portfolio.

Save Ellis Island is the National Park Service non-profit fundraising partner for the preservation and interpretation of the vacant and deteriorating historic buildings of Ellis Island. SEI together with the National Park Service have successfully raised over $60 million to stabilize all thirty of the abandoned buildings, repair, restore and maintain the Ferry Corridors, Ferry Building and Laundry Building on this great monument to freedom.

Save Ellis Island

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