Portret van een onbekende immigrante op Ellis Island, afkomstig uit Pisticci, Italië 1905

This photograph shows a young immigrant woman on Ellis Island, captured by Lewis Hine, who was born in Wisconsin in 1874. I wonder what it must have felt like to arrive, like her, in a completely new world? Look at the way her headscarf frames her face, drawing your eye into her gaze. I think Hine was trying to do something difficult here – he wanted to show her both as an individual, but also as a representation of millions of people who came to America with hopes for a better life. I really feel for the artist, because how do you take a picture that shows both the personal and the universal? In a way, he's doing what painters do – trying to capture something that is both of the moment, yet also speaks to something timeless. I think Hine did a great job, what do you think?