Half a century since its abandonment, North Brother Island fades from New York City's map as nature swallows this one block square quarantine city. Just down the East River, Ward's Island warehouses New York's homeless and mentally ill in a dozen immense buildings clustered under the Triborough Bridge.

The use of Ward's Island as a resting ground for the marginalized traces back through the turn of the century, when it contained the world's largest psychiatric hospital. As the location of one of the world's highest capacity sewage treatment centers, the island remains a terminal for the city's refuse.

North Brother Island's history is similarly bleak. Notorious as a harsh hospital/prison and locus of misfortunate legends like Typhoid Mary and the General Slocum ferry disaster, after decades of failed schemes to repurpose the land have gone fruitless, North Brother has literally gone to the birds. Off-limit to visitors, the island is now a vital resting place for herons, egrets and other migrants.

In November 2006 Bainbridge and Schlanger received permission to join a team from the NYC Parks Department team to travel to and photograph North Brother, which led to the creation of Brother Islands.