Hart Island [SIGNED]

Zurich-Berlin-New York: Scalo, 1998. First edition. Hardcover. Fine. Signed Joel Sternfeld September 15, 2005" on half-title. Oblong Quarto. 117 (1)pp. Original tan cloth with black lettering on cover, in original photo-illustrated dustjacket, white lettering on spine. Tan endpapers.

"Since its purchase in 1869, three quarters of a million people have been buried on Hart Island making it the most dense cemetery in America. This public burial ground is difficult to visit because it is administered by the prison authorities. Inmates serving short-term sentences are bused in from nearby Riker's Island to perform the daily burials... The Hart Island Project is about revisiting these fragments in photographs, stories, documents, installations and public art. It parallels the experiences of many people in search of their beginnings in America. The project began seven years ago at the confluence of three major events in my life: naturalization, the death of my mother, and the birth of my second child. Strangely, I was most unprepared for the first of these: citizenship" (Melinda Hunt).

Illustrated with impressive full page color photographs of Hart Island and ten text collages with photographic centers printed to white glossy paper, the latter preceding the text. Beautiful production in fine condition.