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2013-06-18 12:45:36 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 24 +1s)

Exeunt Omnes

Mayview State Hospital was finally fully vacated just a few years ago; the last patients were moved out of the massive, 120-year old asylum at the end of 2008.  The remaining staff was gone within months, having removed anything of value and shuttered the buildings.  And by the end of 2012 - a scant four years after the closing of the facility - most of the complex was unceremoniously demolished.  It almost brings to mind the curtain call at the end of a stage play; the chorus - the patients - took their bow, and then the stars - the staff - took theirs.  And then the leads - the sprawling complex of buildings - came out ready for their big ovation.  Except the audience had all gone as well, with the exception of a few of us who were lucky enough to see what remained.  Mayview ended to an empty house.

Print available at SmugMug here: smu.gs/14geSea
For ... more »

2013-06-17 21:53:04 (17 comments, 0 reshares, 90 +1s)

Welcome to the machine.

Well, after working most of the day trying to get a new portfolio site online after realizing how woefully out of date my current mess is, I feel like I'M the one that has cogs for brains and oil for blood.  I'm born to compose shots and capture light, not sit here tinkering away trying (pathetically) to hack code.  Enough kvetching, however, as I know you're all just here to catch another glimpse of Rayne Tupelo - so here she is in the elevator machine room in the New Medical Building at Harlem Valley State Hospital.  Now go pay her a visit at raynetupelo.com, and while you're at it, check her out in my new +SmugMug portfolio here: http://goo.gl/hj7a0

2013-06-17 03:41:34 (12 comments, 28 reshares, 85 +1s)

Did some house-cleaning.  Actually, maybe not cleaning...

So it recently was pointed out to me that I had a gallery on here called "Photography Grab-bag" that was like 85% of my project of shooting artistic nudes in ruined buildings, and the occasional weird photo with an octopus, a dead bird, or some other bizarre thing.  This doesn't make a lot of sense, since this is a cohesive project, so now there's a folder specifically for my model photography.  Enjoy!

(And obligatory plug: I am currently listing selected images from this portfolio on eBay.  The link is here: http://goo.gl/WtpBz if you're interested in hanging one of these on your wall).

2013-06-16 19:39:18 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 47 +1s)

The Rear Cupola

Almost certainly, the most iconic part of the Bryce Insane Hospital campus is the giant white cupola dome crowning the 1859 Administration building, the first building in Tuscaloosa, AL to feature gas lighting.  Right behind this building, however, there is an attached addition with a cupola of its own - admittedly, in poor repair after what appears to be decades of abandonment.  Off this second, more understated cupola, there is a large chapel / theatre building.  The door directly ahead in-frame leads into the Administration building proper.

2013-06-12 17:38:52 (7 comments, 2 reshares, 54 +1s)

Coyote Ugly

This image - currently up on eBay in a limited edition here: http://goo.gl/WtpBz - shows the top floor of the Walker building at Central State Hospital, Georgia's largest, and oldest, insane asylum.  Many hours after this photograph was taken - as dusk was starting to tinge the light with its rich palette of blues, I turned a corner into this hallway and came face-to-face with an animal.  I couldn't believe my eyes - it looked a bit like a fox, but was bigger than any fox I'd encountered.  It stared at me, and I at it.  It lowered its head, and charged.  I ran away as fast as my legs could take me, eventually shutting a door that led into a staircase.  Turns out, it was an "urban coyote" - a coyote that was so comfortable around people that it would roam about in public and, in this case, perceive a photographer as a potential "dinner". Defin... more »

2013-06-11 21:45:27 (5 comments, 1 reshares, 68 +1s)

My favorite place on Earth.

I love Buffalo State Hospital; it's easily the coolest place I've ever visited (over a dozen times).  Designed by H. H. Richardson, the Kirkbride building is the epitome of Thomas Story Kirkbride's "moral architecture" ideals - single loaded corridors with windows on the southern end, they basically spent twice as much on this building so that patients could have good light.  Quite a difference from the "Snake Pit" idea that encapsulated American thinking about mental hospitals for many decades.  Here, a patient dormitory is seen during sunset.  A print of this image is currently available here: http://goo.gl/WtpBz

2013-06-11 03:13:42 (9 comments, 0 reshares, 75 +1s)

This photo will always have a special place in my heart.

This photo is imperfect.  It was taken in late winter of 2008; had I taken it six months later, during the blue hour's change into the golden hour (as I did with this) the lighting would have been more dramatic.  Nevertheless, I love this shot - my first from the inside of a complex that very few people have seen.  And the first time one of my photos appeared in a major museum - Brooklyn Museum, 2008.  It's currently available (dirt) cheap on eBay: http://goo.gl/WtpBz - if you'd like to own a signed, numbered limited edition.  But even if not - what a bloody staircase to let fall into ruin, eh?

2013-06-09 23:11:49 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 71 +1s)

(Faux?) Eames Chair in the Asylum Hallway

Just about everybody I know who comes across these molded plastic chairs in various abandoned asylums refers to them as Eames chairs.  It's simple enough to see why - the design is very much reminiscent of the Eames molded plastic chairs of the 40s and 50s.  But to think that the various State Hospitals were investing in the genuine article seems dubious at best, and the particular design of this chair - and many of the other so-called Eames chairs found in asylums - does not appear to have been a part of the genuine Eames line.  Likely, these were a much later (50s-60s) knockoff, purchased in bulk, particularly by certain states.  Regardless, they're pretty gorgeous to look at, and certainly photogenic.

2013-06-08 17:21:19 (13 comments, 2 reshares, 88 +1s)

There to rot in towers.

Starring Rayne Tupelo (raynetupelo.com)

For #LyricallyInspired  from +Jason Jakober, +Amanda Recker & +Tara Romasanta 

There, to rot in towers, windows that barely make sense,
that stands alone in winter, where I had tea there once.
This was it, mangled by poisonous tongue.
The populace was always rather a let down, honey.
Bring something alive if you bring a scrap along
of the city as it might have been, where lovers are.
  --Frankie Sparo - 08 - City as might have been - Welcome Crummy Mystics.avi

2013-06-07 16:52:13 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 45 +1s)

Something of a love letter.

It just struck me that I have been visiting the Kirkbride building at Greystone Park State Hospital for over 7 years now - almost a third of my life.  Back in the first months of 2006, it was a very different place.  The administration pavilion in the center of the building was fully active and full of people, as were the wards flanking it.  It was almost undisturbed at that point; it was possible to walk down a corridor and leave the only set of distinguishable footprints.  Chairs and other artifacts were left in situ, and most of the great arches still had plaster clinging to them.  There was almost no graffiti; there were almost no signs that people had visited these wards in decades.  Over the course of the next year, I probably made 25 trips to the building, often not to photograph, but just to enjoy the wondrous solitude of the place, armed with atrave... more »

2013-06-07 05:53:59 (9 comments, 3 reshares, 68 +1s)

Ivory Tower

Just finished up editing photos for the evening from my road-trip with my lovely friend Rayne Tupelo (check out her site, raynetupelo.com) - and thought I'd share one with my G+ peeps.  Since I couldn't help but think of a song whilst looking at this photo, I think it's fitting that I submit it to #lyricallyinspired  from +Jason Jakober, +Amanda Recker & +Tara Romasanta:

My friend lives in an ivory tower,
she's protected from misery.
She doesn't worry she's got power,
she controls all she sees.
But her blinders work too well,
she don't listen when you try to tell her;
It's too late, that ivory tower's falling down.
  --The Long Ryders "Ivory Tower"

2013-06-06 17:23:06 (2 comments, 3 reshares, 57 +1s)

When a lack of graffiti is a cause for celebration.

Unfortunately, photographers are not the only people drawn to abandoned structures of historic import.  Oftentimes, shortly after abandonment, a building goes through a period during which it is not adequately secured against intruders, and local kids wreck havoc on the structure.  This was the case with the New Medical Building at Harlem Valley State Hospital, abandoned in the early 90s.  Most of the interesting parts of the buildings are covered with hastily spraypainted pictures of penises, pentagrams, and trite phrases like "LOOK BEHIND YOU".  Such was the case with most of the operating suite located near the top of the tower; there would have been some wonderful shots if not for this puerile nonsense.  Miraculously, one operating room was undisturbed - probably because it was nearly pitch-black.  Granted, someonetook ... more »

2013-06-06 00:24:14 (16 comments, 1 reshares, 96 +1s)

Through a Glass Lightly II

Here's another shot from my adventures with Rayne Tupelo, this one from an abandoned 14-story Art Deco bank building.  In rough condition, there are broken interior windows everywhere - and this one just called to me to use it as a frame.  And this being #WindowWednesday  and all, how could I not share it?  I know, I know, several model photos in a row - I promise, I'll be back to my regularly scheduled dilapidated buildings soon enough.  ;)

Meanwhile, you can find a lot more of Rayne's work at raynetupelo.com, and thanks go out to #WindowWednesday  curators +Simon Davis-Oakley, +Cheryl Cooper, +Jules Falk Hunter, +Jason Kowing & +J.J. Bentley 

2013-06-05 16:21:12 (23 comments, 7 reshares, 85 +1s)

In Country Sleep
for +Niki Aguirre's #WomenWednesday  

I just got back from the better part of a week on the road with Rayne Tupelo, an amazing model and an amazing woman.  We covered nearly 1,000 miles, jaunting about the Northeast to various abandoned locations, and Rayne proved to be an exceptional model who would lay in/climb upon/balance on anything to get a shot, a wonderful companion on the long drives, and generally a blast to hang around with.  This is one of the first photos we worked on together, taken during the last strains of the Blue Hour before the sky lit up golden.  It reminds me of Dylan Thomas's "In Country Sleep", in particular the last stanza:

Naked and forsaken to grieve he will not come.
Ever and ever by all your vows believe and fear
My dear this night he comes and night without end my dear
Since you werebor... more »

2013-06-05 08:48:55 (16 comments, 1 reshares, 60 +1s)

#WordlessWednesday  / #WordlessOnWednesday  

2013-05-30 13:46:53 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 46 +1s)

Awwwww Chute!

Depicted here is the laundry chute in the laundry building at Norwich State Hospital, once one of Connecticut's gems.  Sadly, like the physical plant as well as male and female violent wards, this building was demolished with little fanfare last year.  Most of the hospital's laundering was done in this building; laundry was moved through the tunnels to this building in special rolling hampers designated by building.  This explains why this chute ends several feet above ground - these hampers could be parked right under it, to return laundry to the building in question.  As a completely unrelated sidenote, it was a lot of fun to ride down this thing - c'mon, you'd have tried it too!

2013-05-30 02:19:06 (6 comments, 2 reshares, 43 +1s)

Inoperable Operating Room

There are a handful of buildings I would term "deathtraps" - and I would term them as such because, if enough people were to poke around them, I'd be willing to bet dollars to donuts that someone would wind up dead.  The old Fort Totten Army Hospital is one such building; one footstep, and your footing is solid; then next, you're going to fall through the floor.  This is demonstrated in this operating room - where, apparently, several readers of my blog were born - where the center of the room has collapsed entirely, but the periphery is completely walkable.

2013-05-28 14:51:47 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 49 +1s)

That strange circular portal in the dayroom.

For #TuesDecay curated by +Jean-Claude Dahn, +Christian Gruner & myself

Definitely among the stranger scenes in Ohio's former Athens Lunatic Asylum, this dayroom contained a large circular portal leading into the hallway beyond.  Its purpose as an architectural feature is somewhat opaque.  About five feet off the ground, it was low enough to the ground that one could jump up and crawl through it - but high enough that this couldn't be its intended purpose.  Besides, why would an asylum feature a dayroom where patients climbed through a hole to exit a dayroom rather than using the door?  On the other hand, if the purpose was to let light through, a pane of glass would make sense, and the circular design wouldn't.  A square window would be cheaper to construct, and would let more light into the hallway.  Thereason... more »

2013-05-27 16:04:46 (18 comments, 0 reshares, 56 +1s)

Nobody wants to sit behind the guy in the top hat.

When I first noticed the bent wires that rode on the underside of every seat in Smalley's Movie Theatre, I wondered what they might be.  The building's owner knew - they were meant to hold gentlemen's hats during the show, so that they didn't obstruct vision.  Smalley's Movie Theatre operated under the Masonic Hall in Klinkhardt Hall, an 1884 gem in downtown Sharon Springs, NY, and several residents of the town whom I spoke with remember seeing pictures there.

2013-05-26 15:13:59 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 36 +1s)

And we're rolling again!  Willard State Hospital bowling alley.

Even if the process is somewhat more convoluted than seems necessary, it's good to see that once again, it's possible to upload photos into galleries - time to start posting again!  Hooray!  Here's the bowling alley at Willard State Hospital, in the basement of Hadley Hall, an 1892 recreation building that primarily features a theatre/gymnasium.

2013-05-26 18:37:49 (3 comments, 5 reshares, 22 +1s)

Abandoned Islands of NYC

25 images from North Brother Island, Hart Island, and Ellis Island.  To me, these abandoned islands are among the coolest places I've traveled to.  Unlike many abandoned buildings on land, they're hard to access, which means kids don't typically head out to them with spraypaint or baseball bats, and scrappers don't make the effort to pull copper - so they're relatively undisturbed.

2013-05-23 20:34:19 (11 comments, 3 reshares, 13 +1s)

Of all the writeups that my latest blog post has gotten, this one and the one on Business Insider (http://goo.gl/3nrbe) take the cake for being editorially neutral and presenting facts instead of sensationalism.

2013-05-22 20:55:03 (4 comments, 1 reshares, 31 +1s)

Hug me
Tales from the garden - Home

I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees. 
―  Pablo Neruda

I’ll be away shooting a jazz festival, so I won’t be around here for a few days. Take care and see you soon!

• 
#AlienAbductionFriday | +Alex Lapidus +Karl Geiger Jr +Karl Geiger +Michele Cornelius +Heiko Mahr +Jon Beall 
#QuirkyNature | +Carissa Braun 
#LowKeyThursday | +Bartek Siębab   

#Photography | #PortraitPhotography | #NikonShooters | #MonochromeWorld / +Monochrome World | #HQSPNonNaturePhotos / +HQSP Non-Nature Photos | #PixelWorld / +Alberto Carreras | #BreakfastClub / +Gemma Costa | #10000photographersaroundtheworld and #10000photographersBWmonochrome / +Robert SKREINER and +dietmar rogacki | +Promote Photography / +Nikola Nikolski | #treephotography | #tree | #treetuesday... more »

2013-05-22 18:39:22 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 17 +1s)

The Coney Island Mermaid is endangered!

One of my favorite all-time cultural events is the Coney Island Mermaid Parade.  It brings together virtually every artist, oddball, and freak in the New York area for a wonderful day celebrating this hallowed and depraved corner of New York with all of the wonderful Mermaids and Mermen who show up.  But this year, the parade's in jeopardy; flooding has critically damaged the first floor of Coney Island USA, which sponsors the parade, and the show won't go on unless they can raise some money in the next few weeks.

To that end, I'm donating the first $100 or 50% of open-edition profit - whichever is higher - from my "Abandoned Islands of NYC" eBay print auction to this cause.  So if you've considered buying one of my prints but have been holding back - now you can buy one that part of the proceeds will goto... more »

2013-05-22 14:06:08 (7 comments, 1 reshares, 31 +1s)

Rose window in Catholic chapel on Hart Island, NYC's Potter's Field
Print currently available in my eBay auction here: http://goo.gl/WtpBz

In addition to the Potter's Field, which claims most of Hart Island off the coast of the Bronx in NYC, there were several other facilities running on the island - an asylum for insane women, a boys' workhouse, a drug treatment program that was praised by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.  All would have made use of this Catholic chapel, elegantly appointed with the rose window seen here from the choir loft.  What's almost inexplicable are the two unexploded grenades sitting on the milk crate in front of the rose window - needless to say, when I saw the word "grenade" on one of the canisters, I kept my distance.  I wonder who put them there, and why...

2013-05-20 18:43:17 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 8 +1s)

This is what I've been up to recently: New blog post on the Ellis Island Baggage & Dormitory Building!  Did you know that this building - built as a detention center for undesirable immigrants - was later an internment camp that primarily held European "enemy aliens"? All this and more in the article!

2013-05-20 14:56:34 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 20 +1s)

Intentional overexposures can be fun.

Until the photo gallery problems are sorted, I'll likely be posting a bunch of weird stuff.  Prepare thyself.

2013-05-19 19:11:05 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

After the success of my experimental print sale through eBay, I let my blog's readers vote on what the theme of the next eBay print sale should be.  They overwhelmingly voted for "Abandoned Islands of NYC", and so I have just listed 25 new prints from North Brother Island, Ellis Island, and Hart Island - including a new giant limited edition of this, one of my favorite photographs that I've ever taken.

2013-05-18 19:39:30 (11 comments, 1 reshares, 18 +1s)

So how'd you spend your Saturday morning?

Today, thanks to a tip from a reader of my blog, I attended a historical tour of the Willard State Hospital campus in Romulus, NY.  Among the sites I was allowed to enter and photograph were the Superintendent's House, the Morgue, the Power Plant, and Hadley Hall - which contains a theatre and bowling alley.  Sadly, the tour did not include any of the three miniature Kirkbride buildings that are abandoned on the campus.  This is the 1872 Maples building - my favorite of the three, and also arguably the one in best shape - Pines has much more floor collapse, and Edgemere is basically a death trap at this point.  It was nice to be able to get a shot off of the exterior in any case!

2013-05-17 16:48:13 (3 comments, 5 reshares, 58 +1s)

Happy Birthday Christian!

On one hand, I don't really want to be sharing photos again until G+ fixes its albums so that I can share them in the context of the proper body of work.  On the other hand, it's my #TuesDecay  co-curator +Christian Gruner's birthday, so I had to put up something.  So here's a re-share of the small classroom on the first floor of the Forst Building at Trenton State Hospital.

2013-05-16 17:30:49 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 42 +1s)

Detox cage

When the tuberculosis pavilion on North Brother Island was converted for use as a court-ordered drug rehab for juvenile offenders back in the 1950s, the detox procedure was rather simple, and rather medieval; patients were tossed into a room such as this, with a rubber mattress and a bucket to relieve themselves in, and left to sweat the heroin out of their system for several days.  Medications to ameliorate the withdrawal symptoms were only given if the patient was in a life-threatening state.  Otherwise, they were left to deal with it all, under the belief that this would help prevent relapse.  In order to make sure the room was escape proof and damage-resistant, heavy metal screens were installed over the windows, and steel plates over the doors.  The doors were locked with giant bolts, and the single opening panel on the screen with windows overlooking the island securedwit... more »

2013-05-15 14:01:07 (5 comments, 2 reshares, 80 +1s)

#WordlessOnWednesday #WordlessWednesday

2013-05-14 14:08:03 (2 comments, 2 reshares, 30 +1s)

Light leaks in through lath

for #TuesDecay from +Jean-Claude Dahn, +Christian Gruner & myself

Coming across this scene for the dozenth time, I was blown away on a warm day in May about 5 years ago to see the contrast in lighting conditions in the heavily water-damaged bathroom in the male wards at Hudson River State Hospital.  The room was about equally illuminated by light from the small window, and light coming in through the spaces between the lath in the ceiling, where water had removed almost all of the plaster and much of the roof above.  I hear tell that this floor is no longer accessible - what used to be a somewhat nerve-jangling jump from a staircase to the floor is now impossible, as more of the floor has fallen away.  But I'm glad to have seen this scene when I did.

2013-05-27 16:04:46 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 19 +1s)

Twilight through the Fallen Oculus

For #TuesDecay, curated by +Christian Gruner, +Jean-Claude Dahn & myself

In a scene from the only original residence on Admiral's Row - the row of stately officer's mansions on the Brooklyn Navy Yard - deemed worth saving, twilight filters in through a fallen oculus above the grand stairwell in Quarters B.  Along with the Timber Shed, this is the only building of the 11 that is slated to be saved - the rest will be meeting with the wrecking ball, even though two independent architectural firms - Beardsley Design and Crawford & Stearns - deemed 9 of the 11 to be sound, level, and plumb.  Standing under this hollow structure, it was hard not to reflect on the fact that this building was once home to Commodore Matthew Perry, and that hundreds of distinguished officers had called these mansions home - and now, they were justca... more »

2013-05-13 13:46:08 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 28 +1s)

Deathbed Visitation

In 2007, the State of New York decided with little fanfare to rip the century-old rear wing additions off of Utica State Hospital, the first public asylum building in the state.  Catching wind of this, I planned a trip, but it was too late for the East Wing; it had been reduced to rubble by the time I arrived at the hospital.  The West Wing was still standing, abated and ready for demolition.  It was a beautiful and harmonious addition to the 1843 National Historic Landmark main building; it echoed the architecture beautifully, down to the skylights on the top floors, and the ornate details such as this arch connecting two seemingly unremarkable rooms inside the building.  But like a deathbed visitation, the building was gaunt and weak.  The paint and asbestos had been stripped, bagged, and cleaned, leading to the conspicuous absence of dust and debris seen here. Eve... more »

2013-05-12 18:22:20 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 48 +1s)

A Natural Diptych

It's a challenge to create dynamic natural diptychs in abandoned buildings; usually there's some confounding factor, and something just doesn't work.  And for this reason above all others, I'm frequently experimenting with the concept - might not always work, but I always get better at it, and who doesn't love a good challenge?  I consider this among the finest of my attempts; shot in the early morning light in the Forst building at Trenton State Hospital, the tone, EV and character of the doorframe which divides the scene gives the diptych an organic feel that is usually lacking from attempts such as these.  Usually, I spend more time finding fault with my work than being proud of it; in this case, I can say that despite one little flaw that I'm not about to point out, I'm very proud of this piece, and that's a great feeling.

2013-05-17 03:45:37 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 46 +1s)

WYSIWYG film during a dramatic sunset on the violent ward

Yesterday I wrote about a great experience I had shooting a roll of low-contrast portrait film on an overcast day to enhance the muted and calm feel of the building.  Playing around with different emulsions in different lighting conditions was one of my favorite parts of shooting film; finding the right combination could yield amazing results, while choosing the wrong mix could leave you with a photograph you just knew was lacking.

One of my favorite emulsions was what I called "WYSIWYG film" - Agfa Optima 100, sadly discontinued in 2005.  It was neither muted nor dramatic in its contrast & color saturation, and had exceptionally accurate color rendition.  What You See is What You Get.  When I shot the Salmon building at Norwich State Hospital - the violent ward building for forensic commitments - in thesum... more »

2013-05-11 14:12:29 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 44 +1s)

The irony of fire and water

When the second New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum was constructed in 1875 to ease the overcrowding of the facility at Trenton, it was adorned with a beautiful and ornate mansard roof housing the attic.  Dormer windows peeked out over the well-manicured grounds, and ornate spired cupolas stood in the center and at each end of each ward.  The finished building was truly a sight to behold.  However, in 1929 and 1930, a series of three fires attributed to employee carelessness ripped through the attics, destroying them - and the roof - entirely.  Already in a state of budgetary crisis, the state decided not to replace the attic or the ornate roof - the building was capped off after the top ward floor with a utilitarian roof supported by cinderblocks where bricks had fallen in.

The irony of the situation is that, now, after decades of abandonment, theout... more »

2013-05-10 22:22:49 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 46 +1s)

Low-contrast portrait film and an overcast day on the ward

On a day when I'm reorganizing my photos so that I can actually find what I'm looking for, I'm stumbling across a lot of scenes that are nudging me to reminisce.  I remember this overcast day wandering about the Curry Reception Building at Greystone Park State Hospital, demolished over half a decade ago.  It was a pleasant day, neither hot nor cold, and the sky was completely overcast, but with mellow, unthreatening white clouds.  To fit the mood of the day, I loaded up some Kodak 160 NC and went to town capturing parts of the complex, which also included the Cafeteria and Clinic buildings.  Here, at the end of one of the spokes of Curry, there was muted dormitory painted in a blue not so very off from the white of the walls.  With the muted light coming through the windows, and the muted film in my camera, I thinkI di... more »

2013-05-10 16:58:49 (2 comments, 2 reshares, 39 +1s)

It is enough just to have seen.

While creating the best photographs possible is generally one of my goals when venturing into one of the historic abandoned structures I love so much, it would be a lie to say that part of the joy doesn't come from just having been able to see it in person.  In 2007, I had the rare opportunity to see the administrative building of the complex once known as "The Asylum for the Criminally Insane at Matteawan", New York's first dedicated forensic psychiatric campus.  Everything that could go wrong seemed to, photographically - my tripod head broke, my cable release broke, and the winder on my camera wasn't winding properly, meaning that about 2/3 of the shots that I took wound up overlapping on the negative strip and being totally useless.  While not a great shot by any means, this was one of the few salvageable pieces I walked awaywi... more »

2013-05-10 12:49:24 (5 comments, 2 reshares, 34 +1s)

That damn sun / that wonderful sun

In an ideal world for modern ruins photographers, the average day would sound something like this: clear sky from astronomical twilight through an hour after sunrise.  Partly cloudy for a few hours; overcast with dark clouds through the middle of the day again, partly cloudy again for a few more hours.  And then clear again through the golden and blue hours of evening.  It rarely works out that way.  On the day I took this photograph, I was confounded by harsh sunlight for most of the day, and was cursing that damn giant nuclear explosion in the sky for being so bright and unyielding.  But come the sunset, I was suddenly glad for the clear skies - as they allowed me to get a couple of shots with this sort of lighting.  Here, on the top floor of Western State Hospital's DeJarnette building, swept clean in preparation for renovations which stillhave ... more »

2013-05-09 14:00:31 (9 comments, 1 reshares, 48 +1s)

Some thoughts on previsualization

I taught myself photography out of an archaic pre-digital-era tome, titled - or perhaps mistitled - "The Amateur Photographer's Handbook".  Back when this book was first published, even an "amateur" photographer had to be very committed to the craft - even a cheap SLR setup in the middle of the 20th century would be a pretty serious investment, and "amateurs" would still learn all of the technical details of photography - details that few pros learn in this day and age.

Another concept that seems to have fallen along the wayside is previsualization.  In the digital age, you can compose and expose a shot, and tell immediately by chimping the LCD whether you got what you wanted.  This was not the case in the film days, and having learned on film, I still value previsualization.  Basically, the idea is toima... more »

2013-05-08 20:24:49 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 31 +1s)

#WordlessOnWednesday
#WordlessWednesday  

2013-05-08 14:03:35 (8 comments, 0 reshares, 43 +1s)

Train passing an abandoned mill on the old Norfolk & Southern line... HAPPY BIRTHDAY +Gene Bowker!

So a little birdy the bar on the side of my G+ stream tells me it's +Gene Bowker's birthday today - happy birthday friend!  I couldn't think of a more fitting photograph to honor the occasion; Gene was one of the first people I met and bonded with when I joined G+.  Within a few discussions we were trading comments back and forth on the virtues of O. Winston Link's photography of the last steam railroad in America and the beauty of the rail system in general.  Gene's work, particularly in shooting the rails and little piece of Americana, is consistently interesting and thought-provoking; if you're not following him, why not start on his birthday and take a look through some of his work? #happybdaygene  

2013-05-07 14:55:23 (4 comments, 2 reshares, 39 +1s)

View through viewing window in seclusion room door out into violent ward, Middletown State Hospital

For #TuesDecay  from +Jean-Claude Dahn, +Christian Gruner & myself. Print of this photograph currently available as part of a series currently live on eBay: http://goo.gl/WtpBz

This is among the group of photographs that I've taken that I would consider my best; when I took the shot, I selected a low-contrast, low saturation portrait film, and then waited about an hour for the lighting to look just so.  I wanted to capture the feeling of the only view a patient would have from their room in the late-19th century violent ward at Middletown State Hospital, and chose to focus on the door while leaving the violent ward corridor beyond the window slightly out of focus - for this is how it must have appeared to the patients looking out, gaining only murky glances of thegoi... more »

2013-05-27 16:04:46 (4 comments, 1 reshares, 48 +1s)

Blue Chair by the Window

While many of the now-abandoned resort hotels in Sharon Springs stayed in business until the early 2000s, the Hotel Empire - a large structure smack-dab in the middle of town - was abandoned back in 1993.  Time has not been kind to the building; water damage has eaten holes in some of the floors, and the tin ceilings are starting to droop down.  But here, in a quiet room near the top of the structure, a relatively intact room remains, with a quietly decaying blue chair situated next to a window.

2013-05-05 18:35:41 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

By popular demand, I have added 10 smaller, unlimited (open) edition prints to my eBay print sale in addition to the limited edition view of the curved connector hallway at Buffalo State Hospital.  10 shots from different insane asylums - might you like one to grace your walls?

2013-05-05 15:58:56 (2 comments, 2 reshares, 50 +1s)

Water and Stupid Men

Richard Nickel, my hero, and one of the early generation of modern ruins photographers who captured the grandeur of Louis Sullivan's Chicago buildings as the city was systematically destroying them, once remarked that "great architecture has only two natural enemies: water, and stupid men".  Sadly, the 1884 Walker Building at Georgia's Central State Hospital has been hit heavily by both.  In the 1970s, some stupid men decided to abandon the building without putting any effort into mothballing it against the elements; the roof over half of the building - such as this bathroom - is mostly gone.  And water has taken its toll; walking these corridors, one almost feels as if one is walking over moist soil instead of crumbled plaster and rotted wood.  Vegetation grows from this mixture, and rooms such as this bathroom are starting to collapse and fallin ... more »

2013-05-04 18:08:25 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 36 +1s)

On Prisons & Asylums

It has often been remarked that "the prisons are becoming the new asylums", being that the decline of the inpatient psychiatric facility has correlated with an increase of inmates in the prison system diagnosed with mental illness.  Instead of receiving adequate psychiatric care inside a designated facilities, the mentally ill are often caught up in the criminal justice system; in the prisons, they do not receive adequate care and many languish in their illness.  There is a particular sort of mental hospital, originally designated as an "asylum for the criminally insane" and now designated as a "forensic center" that toes the line between mental health care and incarceration.  These forensic wards would hold patients deemed "Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity" and those judged unfit to aid in their own defense at trial. T... more »

2013-05-03 17:07:05 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 32 +1s)

Biological Specimens

You run across some of the strangest things in abandoned insane asylums.  On the upper shelf in a closet in a patient room in the Lincoln ward at Worcester State Hospital, I came across these bacteriological specimen containers.  There was no rational reason for them to be there - this was not a medical building, and a patient's closet wouldn't be a sensible place to store laboratory specimens in any case.  Weirder still, some of the containers were full - including the feces sample in the center of the image.  Somebody took the time to obtain serum and feces samples from a patient, and then left them in a closet on the fourth floor of a ward.  A mystery that will never be solved - Lincoln, as well as the rest of the Worcester wards, was demolished in 2008.