Hoffman and Swinburne Islands were constructed in New York Harbor as quarantine stations for immigrants arriving during outbreaks of contagious disease. Passengers suspected of exposure were removed from their ships before reaching Ellis Island; the sick were isolated and treated on the islands. Created after Staten Island residents resisted having quarantine facilities onshore, the artificial islands embody the intersection of immigration, public health and fear of disease. Both are now closed to the public and largely reclaimed by nature.

Hoffman and Swinburne were part of the same long fascination that began when I rowed to Ellis Island as a teenager: islands in New York Harbor that millions of people pass without knowing their histories. Photographing them extended that story outward from Ellis Island to the quarantine system immigrants encountered before they ever reached its famous Great Hall.