I would like to draw attention to the Immigrants who wanted to live a better life following the American dream. I tried to connect past and present with visualizing these people from vintage photos in today’s environment.
Last year I’ve been to Ellis Island, and I immediately had a bad feeling about that place. I approximately knew what happened in Ellis Island, and later, I’ve been thinking about the likeness of current migration reforms and immigrant crisis in the United States. I did research, and it’s really sad what happened to many Immigrants. Many of them died in Ellis Island while waiting and hoping for an opportunity for a new life.
In this way, their dream came true. I created this photo manipulation project as a reminder and commemorated to the 3,500 people who died there.
Old photos from the previous century are often forgotten, so I did picture colorization on them and some photo editing to make more connections to the present. The images are fictional, and many people couldn’t even get into Manhattan or live in America.
Migration is an ongoing situation, and the story of Ellis Island is still relevant nowadays.
This is not history. This is today.
More info: floraborsi.com
Here's how I did these. Cutting out
Research
Colorizing
Color grading
