Hart Island [Hardcover]

Melinda Hunt (Author), Joel Sternfeld (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1998

A photographic journey through this public burial ground in New York, where over three quarters of a million people have been buried since its purchase in 1869.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Destined to land close to each other in a library collection, these two books are so different they might be describing two worlds, not one city. Rajs shoots his New York as if he were on an assignment for National Geographic. His city is rich in polychrome power. It is so lovingly composed that to a native New Yorker, it looks like somewhere else. The dazzle that Rajs captures is not in daily routine but in the wonder of photography that builds glory through mastery of the medium by aiming at places, moments, and urban majesty. Hamill provides a fine opening essay that is long on history, careful about nostalgia, and realistic about the ups and downs of New York City. No glistening monument to human industry, Hart Island in New York Harbor has supported a cemetery, a charity hospital for women, an insane asylum, a jail, and now a cemetery again. Artists Hund and Sternfeld show it to be a secret place?a small island full of common graves, long trenches filled with pine boxes of forgotten dead?and in the process throw a meteor at people who think they know New York. Their photographs are generally brown and gray, visions of a lonely place in a lonely winter. The labor pool for the death detail is a cadre of prisoners from the city's jail at Riker's Island. These tough urban men seem softened by their work, by the finalization their digging brings to lives that never really got started. No single part of this book seems masterly?not Hunt's introductory essay, not the straightforward photographs under heavy clouds, not the images of crudely marked coffins large and small. But as a carefully collected volume, it is a moving and memorable portrayal of a secret place crammed with anonymous New Yorkers. Both books are recommended.?David Bryant, New Canaan P.L., CT
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 119 pages
• Publisher: Scalo Publishers (December 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 393114190X
• ISBN-13: 978-3931141905
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,738,097 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting, beautiful and sublime., February 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Hart Island (Hardcover)

If I was a better writer I would find better words than haunting, beautiful and sublime for this incredible book. If I could, I would PAY people to read it. (On the condition that they give me the money back if they agree that it's as good as I say it is!) It gives a lovely, painful and unforgetable look at how forgetable we can be. The shots of the bleachers from Ebbets Field! Broke my heart.

I can't stop looking at these images.

I can't stop trying to read the records of the people buried there that surround the photographs in the front.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Almost out of print, April 25, 2009

By 

Mary M. Hunt (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hart Island (Hardcover)

This book is the last time a photographer and an artist were able to gain access to Hart Island with permission of the Department of Correction. It changed visitation policy for families who can now visit.

However, the press are now totally banned. Many of fine Victorian Era institutional buildings are being dismantled without landmark evaluation. A Federal Army Civil War era stable sits waiting to be recognized.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hart Island is a very special and sacred island., November 17, 1999

By 

Judy Colgan ([e-mail]) (Mclean, Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hart Island (Hardcover)

I want to be buried on Hart Island and cannot. So, I have to settle for the next best thing. The photography is outstanding and transports me right into each picture. The book is a fine historical tribute to all of the islands that surround Manhattan and have made it the city it is.