Hmm.. I spelled my own name wrong.

Lynne is da "person" tho, no matter how I spell my name.

RE; Lynne 01-06-06.

Repeat, while deep breathing, "I'm a kitten, You're a kitten"

Continue until urge to strike out is decreased.

***Got the Kitten thing from a Mike Myers interview***

It's kind of cool the way the head/foot of these beds is buried in the plaster dust, almost as if they were slowly sinking.

Or an evil "nemesis pan"!

Jude, now that you mention it, it really does.
Cool

Fantastic perspective and lighting.

F****** Awsome shot Motts.
That's what I love about your site, your eye for capturing stunning bits of architecture that may soon be lost, and sharing them with all of us.

Thank you.

NO! Lynne, you let out the BIG secret!

What's every one in health care going to do? *whining voice* How could you?

At least you left out the mandetory classes on depriving people of their dignity and...uh oh I said too much.

;-/

Lyric,
**10 from the east German judges, 10 from France, 10 from America, and 1.2 from all the soooo well informed perfect people, and 1000 from those who really know.**

I am speechless (If you have seen some of my posts you'll be surprised)!!

*Don't loose that soapbox, it's needed around here.*

Hey, isn't that where they performed public ECT so the staff could get a kick outta the "inmates" convulsions...


Sorry I don't really mean that, I just had a sarcastic moment...

Really, poor taste sorry :-(

Impressive as ever Motts

Great lighting, and contrast My favorite lonely chair.

*Stage whisper* Pssst...Lynne Lynne. *Okay she won't see me borrow her soap box.*


Again I most sincerely apologize for being long winded, but mattie and Nikki just pushed me over the edge.

First I'll touch on matt's survey. Well if you got your facts from the news/internet I'm sure it must be true hmmm...and ending your comment like you did man, come on. One must always keep in mind all the things Lynne says are 100% correct. Almost no facility can be inspected and found to not have any violations/deficiencies found. That is why we do those inspections, (I mean they) to look for a problem that needs to be corrected, and dealt with. Outside inspectors are there to dig deep, and find things staff or administrators may not see because they are too close to it. Most ALWAYS, I said always, that's right; The violations found are so...(I hate to say minor *scratches head stuck*)well so, umm not really that serious in the overall scheme of operation, and patient care. The violations that might be found could be things like dietary getting hit for not maintaining a perfect temperature of 187.45 degrees F on the steam table (Or whatever it's only an example..sheesh). The steam table at that facility might keep a perfect 186.5 degrees maybe because it's old. Now I'm pretty sure 180 degrees kills most all food borne bacteria, is this treating residents cruelly, callously, creating a nightmare environment within the facility... UMMM NOT! This is an (maybe poor) example of things that can end up on matties oh so accurate surveys. Before someone says it I will. Sometimes a facility does get found to have serious violations, and when they are, they are dealt with accordingly. Patient abuse is taken SOOOO seriously that IF..IF..it does occur, sometimes people who are only suspected, SUSPECTED mind you, of knowing it happened and did not report it, can face major disciplinary actions.

Now, please, please would all who comment about how hellish, and cruel the staff in these places were, "how could they have done that to those poor people?" remember this one tiny little itty bitty thing : THESE PLACES WERE STATE OF THE ART IN THE MID TO LATE 20TH Century OR WHATEVER!!! They were not about cruelty and torture. Those people were being treated with the most advanced techniques OF THAT TIME. The pictures that Mr. Motts provide for our perusal (Magnificently I must say) are of BUILDINGS THAT HAVE BEEN ABANDONED FOR AROUND TEN OR MORE YEARS! They capture some of the beauty that was part of some places, as well as some of the starkness, but um, um, well institutional buildings look like, well, institutional buildings. I personally attended a middle school built in the thirties and it looked more like a jail than the local jail, but most schools of that era were built like that. It's the same with these buildings, the ones from the 1800s are architecturally stunning IMHO, the ones from 30s are more stark, why you may ask was it built so stark..That was their idea of a streamlined efficient facility, a MODERN FACILITY, not one that was intended to be cruel and inhuman.
Lastly NIKKI, Dear Nikki. Lynne Most certainly has a clue. Please people stop lumping all caregivers into the same category as the commandants of Nazi death camps, they are the frontline in the battle to provide people with various problems the care that they need, to live as fulfilling a life as they possibly can.

*sigh* Sorry long winded again.
Here's yer box back Lynne. *Shuffles away from keyboard repeating I will not be long winded I will not be...*

See typing about Motts makes me stutter type.....I'm not worthy

*Bows before the amazing Mots*

I often return to this picture (I secretly use this picture to create Opacity addicts) when I want to show someone an example of Motts' incredible ability to capture such stunning contrasts,(I know, I know, there are tons of awesome shots) but for me, for some reason, I almost always show someone this one first.

Motts you are a amazing...

This is among my first comments/posts, whatever, to Opacity. I want to apologize in advance if it becomes longwinded (Again). I have wanted to address a more or less recurring question that comes up; Why did they just leave that equipment there?

I sort of have an answer based upon my own experience. I spent quite a few years working for the government(well 18+)so my thoughts about this are based on observations, as well as hands on.

Ok, here goes (IMHO). When the government (state or federal heretofore referred to as Gov cause I am lazy sometimes HEH HEH insert Govt worker joke here) purchases, equipment they contract from company X for Y number of (lets say pretty institutional gray desks.) to be manufactured and shipped to warehouse Z for distribution to various facilities. Now imagine that the Gov contracted with X to produce Y=20000 desks per year for five years (Please, Please just making a point) you end up with a lot of desks right? Now all the pretty institutional green offices will be supplied with pretty gray desks plus a few left over. (Whew, am I long winded or what?) Getting long, time to shorten. Five years is over new contract for 100000 fake wood desks to replace gray ones, warehouse full of fake wood desks, old facility closes, the hell with grey, we'll use fake wood at new place, just leave the gray ones there we'll get them later if we need them. (Although they almost never do.). This applies to a lot of different stuff. I must admit though it was a lot more common 15 or 20 years ago (Age of abandonment of the buildings Motts photographs for us.)


Ok sorry way long.

Motts keep em coming just be safe man.

Umm....Grifspop. That is most defiantly a super high capacity soap dispenser...well....I may be off the mark. It might be just a sooooper soap dispensing light fixture.

*Mumbles nearly incoherently "Man why did I put up that first comment/post, now my fingers are going to just get carried away"*

I AM a recreational Opacity user I aint no junky, I can stop, sure I know I can.

*trembles* Anytime man, I can Stop sure

Sorry I cannot possibly reveal the top secrets of the "handy" light fixture's principle of operation, or weather or not it exsists at all. It must remain unknown ~Me for all time. (unless you can treach me the pirate dance). ^_^

Lynne never stand silent, patients/clients/residents, need an outspoken advocate such as yourself to make sure that they know someone really cares.

I have always been moved (guess you can say) by your comments. You TRY to remind people that there are those that care.

I dunno what to say really but your posts/comments, really hit home with me, make me remember that not every one in your tough field is totally burnt out.

Keep it real Lynne

"I've noticed alot of these abandoned asylums and such are very pretty architecturally but the beauty has been made poisonous with all the tragedy..."

Lunar, a lot of these old buildings were, well, just built that way. It has nothing to do with "tragedy and human misery" or anything. Years ago this is how they built almost any building. I applaud Mr. M for perseving these small architectural details from the past, it is truly a lost art.

*Blushes*
I don't know if I deserve my own soap box just yet guys :-)

Maybe a handy one?

Well..desk chair type things anyway....

HEY A not so lonely chair ;-)

I lurk no more. Motts I love yer pics man, if you don't Photoshop them other than B+W, man have you got an eye for capturing lighting, composition, depth of field contrast, you are my hero, truly a photographer to try and emulate *drops to knee, bows head*.

Ok, now that that is out of the way. If I'm out of line here as a newb I'm sorry, but I have read a great deal of this site (I even get soap dispenser/light fixture) and I can no longer just, well, not comment.

I want to try and respond to the people who constantly, CONSTANTLY, say "Aww that's such a sad/horrible/cruel place to have been in." Yes it can be sad, very sad, but to someone like myself who has been on BOTH sides of institutional life, I get kind of riled up when some people that have no REAL idea of what goes on inside these places lump all of the staff at these facilities into the same categories, cruel/heartless/abusing/uncaring/thoughtless/inhuman, monsters. Damn, that just makes me sooo angry! Yes, there are bad staff at various places, like bad employees in ANY industry/company, and THEY ARE ALWAYS,ALWAYS, IN THE MINORITY(sorry for the shout but can't make my point any other way)!!!

Man, if it weren't for some AWSOME staff..*sigh* my life probably wouldn't be what it is now, and I'm talking about..more than 20, yes more than 20 years ago, SUPRISE, there were enough CARING people waaaaayyyy back then (before some commenters were even born) to make a huge difference in my life. People like Lynne in other words, people who really try to make a difference inside, as well as out, trying to get others to understand that the MAJORITY of caregivers, really do care about the people in their care, and they do make a difference, every single day.

That part said, I sort of get a kick out of comments about the above picture being way creepy, hideous, whatever. Firstly overcrowding could be a reason for using a basement room; secondly this painting was done years ago when that room was brightly lit with electric light, and had not been abandoned for years and years. Plus the staff member or resident who painted it was not Mikey Anjello. It was an attempt to brighten a drab space. Now it is a sad reminder of the past which Mr. M has captured most perfectly.


So sorry for the rant, I think I found Lynne's soapbox under a lonely chair.

Lynne You de Man... um well umm you know what I mean ..*blush*