From 1892 until 1924, more than 12 million immigrants entered the United States through Ellis Island. Today, its ornate Victorian buildings stand as a museum and memorial in New York harbor, in the shadow of the nearby Statue of Liberty. Many of the rooms in Ellis Island’s main building have been restored to their original appearance, including this one. I exposed on the window light to darken the room, and converted the image to black and white to strengthen the sense of what it must have felt like to pass through such a room more than 100 years ago. New York City was so close – the end of a long and often anxious journey. Yet the ornate bars on the window, the harshness of the dimly seen tiled wall and ledge, and the confining cloak of darkness must have made a new home seem, at least for the moment, out of reach. For some immigrants, the bars symbolized the threat of denied entry. For most, they were simply a final barrier to the promised land.