ANOTHER LIFE
I find the Ellis Island photographs from the late 1800s and early 1900s fascinating. In those old sepia people recently alighting from Europe in traditional clothing stare back at the camera. I often imagined their journey, not just from the old country, but also their future acculturation. In this image, a young woman dressed in a Balkan style dress, (inspired in turn by Byzantine historical attire) casts a look at her prayer book. We do not know anything about her, her country of origin, or her religious affiliations. All we know is that she is about to become a different version of herself, in some significant ways. Hence the title of the painting: 'Another Life'.
