Rusted Playground

this is just sad.

The way the rust is cast across the ground, it looks like the tricycle bled out on the spot. How sad.

This is a sad and empty shot. How long has that bike been there for it to leave it's rusted impression in the cement like that? God, it's just depressing-looking. That bike used to bring fun and now it's just a rusted relic.

Agreed, very desolate.

for how long that bicycle had been laying there?

Seems like the degree of sadness for each viewer of these images varies with the depth of their ability to feel or relate to sadness itself. Many of the viewers here seem drawn to such ample doses of dread as these. Motts, I wonder (though probably asked many times) if it is possible that there exists an image in your many collections that you find either the saddest or most disturbing, or both? I find the emotions surrounding the children's playthings to be the saddest of all.
If there is in each person a tendancy to let their soft side be known, the camera eye is your tell. Over the past several months I find I visit Opacity when I feel the need to experience the emotions I find through your camera lens. You would make a most interesting acquaintance, I think.

It is so wrong.....to think a "disturbed" child did something every bit as normal as a regular child. This is a sad, eerie shot that looks almost staged in its simplicity.

A very evocative shot, the position of the bike - like some kids just got of it, matched with the bench seen in the background, acting as examples of former civilisation. However, the building that encloses this playground seems entrapping, like the innocence of the children was corrupted, with the contrast of the blue sky offering the only sense of freedom to aspire to.

In my opinion, one of Mott's best shots throughout all locations covered.

Truly a suggestive, deep, and atmospheric shot.

And they think that would actually stop them...ha good luck w/ that

this is just heart breaking to see, no lest toknow that they were treated bad.

unbelievably sad to know children were made to stay in a "state" hospital. nicer way to say insane asylum. poor people!

A developmental center is not the same thing as a mental health facility, which is a much nicer way of saying "insane asylum."

THIS IS A VERY SAD SHOT.

a playground should represent a safe haven for the children so they could feel somewhat "normal" from their disabilities, but the patients were sealed in like rats..all to prevent escape..so sad

Your photo of the wheelchair in the playroom at Pennhurst still haunts me. I guess looking at this now, I feel less haunted. Thanks again for documenting these locations.

How depressing. It's like the owner of the bike was forced to leave it behind.

this shot rips me apart

Oh, I remember this one.

I was looking at the different links you have for other Urban ruin sites and I saw the one for Urban Atrophy. I was looking threw some of their galleries and I noticed that they had an image of the same bike. They said it was from the Patuxent Mental Hospital. I was wondering if the Fuller State School was part of the Patuxent Mental Hospital?

I wonder who the child was that rode it last! :( very sad indeed

that lonely bike seems to be like a stamp on the ground.

Escape?!
Wasn't this for children?
:(

reminds me of juvinille detention not a school/ hospital!!!!

Does anybody ever find it "demoralizing" that those suffering severe Alzhemir's dementia need to be locked in to prevent *escape?
-In this case, escape= resident wandering off to who knows where, possibly to be found dead, killed, or disappearing completely.

The photo, on the other hand, has me wondering...are actual prison yards much bigger than this, and are the buildings pictured just coincidentally low enough that the roofs need to be slanted? I don't think I've ever seen this.

didnt know they played basketball in hospitals XD

That bike is waiting for a child to come ride it. This is a depressing shot but I must say, at least they took the kids out to play.

This one photo inparticular makes me feel alone...i feel abandonment when i look at it...and a deep deep sense of sadness