Comments
Door To Surgical

Lithium

That door's a classic. They don't make them like that anymore!

Location: Clairvaux Tuberculosis Hospital  Gallery: Restraints

Colors of the Ward

Lithium

I'm going to wear myself out remarking about these stunning shots..another stunner, like the last ones...like the ones to follow!

Location: Northwood Asylum  Gallery: Silence

Little Blue Room

Lithium

Damn, what a fine shot!

Location: Northwood Asylum  Gallery: Silence

Caged In

Lithium

Asylums and prisons were two similar strands of the same DNA of social control. Read your Michel Foucault.

Location: Northwood Asylum  Gallery: Silence

Solarium

Lithium

A solarium with barred windows and so little light. What a profoundly depressing space.

Location: Northwood Asylum  Gallery: Silence

Bed of Straw

Lithium

State laws require embalming, except for certain religious groups which bury their dead within 48 hrs. Who knows if anyone bothered to embalm these unfortunates? When everything was done 'in house', the odds are that corners got cut and the dead just got plunked down on a layer of cheap, absorbent straw.

Location: Northwood Asylum  Gallery: Silence

Casket

Lithium

An "accident" occurs, you quickly and quietly whisk the memory of it away, throw it in a box, and bury it out back. No different than many prisons of the period. Had cremation been a more common practice then, nobody would know where the ashes went or who they once were.

Location: Northwood Asylum  Gallery: Silence

Shower Stalls

Lithium

"Another job for Mr Clean"? I remember the old labels on bottles of Mr Clean used to say "Keep Mr Clean away from children"!

Location: Pennhurst State School  Gallery: The Sadness

Pit Of Oblivion

Lithium

These kids were trapped and knew they were trapped. Every passage becomes a dark passage because you know that even if you escape, your playmates and friends won't. This picture encapsulates everything Pennhurst couldn't achieve.

Location: Pennhurst State School  Gallery: The Sadness

Show Me to the Suction Machine

Lithium

People like Phantom make me laugh. His 'new' suction machine, taken out of that place is like any other old suction machine. The sign pictured above, however, is priceless!

Location: Pennhurst State School  Gallery: Forgotten

Safety Bathroom

Lithium

I've always thought that that piping around those sinks and other fixtures were more about preventing a patient from damaging or ripping out a sink than for their ease of movement. I just don't see a viable handhold here or anything that improves mobility.

Location: Pennhurst State School  Gallery: Forgotten

Children

Lithium

In any context, a mural such as this seems sad and aspirational. How were those kids supposed to connect with this image? It seems cruelly mocking to surround those who suffer with idealized imagos.

Location: Pennhurst State School  Gallery: Forgotten

Antique

Lithium

"...and when she saw that she was through, she gave the sofa forty two."

Location: Metropolitan State Hospital  Gallery: Clarity

Reinforced Door

Lithium

This looks like where you go after attacking staff. I bet a few who went in here left as a corpse.

Location: Verden Psychiatric Hospital  Gallery: Uncovering the Past

Scarlet Marks

Lithium

It's like trying to paint over a bloodstain and the stain keeps reemerging. All that peeling paint takes you back to that moment.

Location: Verden Psychiatric Hospital  Gallery: Uncovering the Past

Room Seven

Lithium

What happened behind this door? Do people really just walk away from this world and remain silent? The doors were really there to keep the narrative from escaping.

Location: Verden Psychiatric Hospital  Gallery: Uncovering the Past

Crumble

Lithium

This shot's a knockout. As these buildings melt down, they reveal so many new layers. So many layers of information added by Motts as well. I'm listening to Harold budd as I scroll through these...and It's beyond riveting.

Location: Verden Psychiatric Hospital  Gallery: Uncovering the Past