I’ve been shooting images of abandoned Victorian and Edwardian lunatic asylums and mental hospitals ever since I was first asked to shoot one single image of the outside of one as an illustration for a book, back in 2008.
The building in question opened in 1852 and had already been abandoned since 1989. While the weather, nature, vandals, and plunderers of various types had already taken their toll on the building, it still stood imposing, defiant and forbidding. Somehow it had managed to avoid the fires, both accidental and deliberate, which had typically put an end to dozens of others as they stood awaiting the final judgment of a society that had once celebrated them as a solution to a whole range of perceived medical, moral and social problems, but was now falling over itself to sweep them away for housing, car parks, and shopping malls.
I wanted to present one of the lesser considered aspects; a collection of views of and from windows in some asylums and mental hospitals in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Italy, built between 1713 and 1937. These were often the moments where I would pause a little longer, forget the photography for a moment or two to just look and listen, and feel, or believe I could feel, just a little more able to stand in someone else’s shoes for a second. And even if in reality, of course, I had no idea how any of the patients themselves felt, the frame and aperture that a window provides meant I knew I was definitely standing in the exact spot and seeing a scene that in some cases was almost entirely unchanged from what they had looked out on, sometimes more than two and a half centuries ago.
#1 Looking Into The Central Courtyard
#2 The Victorians Were Always More Partial To Ivy
#3 A Monastic Design Is Used In This Italian Asylum
#4 Nature Ignoring The Boundaries Set
#5 Bay Window In A Day-Room
#6 Ventilation Window Installed In 1831
#7 Glazed Corridors Navigate The Ground Between Wards, Allowing Easy Movement, But Also Constant Containment
#8 Tatters, Or Ribbons
#9 December Day
#10 Through The Round Window
#11 A Restive Space
#12 The Water Tower, Visible From Almost Every Window
#13 Cutting Edge
#14 One Of The Oldest Institutions In Britain, Dating Back To 1713
#15 An Internal Courtyard, But A Day Like This Would Mean This View Was All You Were Going To Get
#16 A Corridor Warmed By Autumnal Leaves
#17 From A Ward To The Recreation Hall
#18 Tightly Packed Ward Blocks
#19 The Worst Cells I Have Seen, These Are Located In The Basement
#20 From One Corridor To Another
#21 The Sky Could Be Anywhere
#22 The Clock Tower, Keeping The Whole Institution Beating To The Same Daily Rhythm
#23 The Lights Of The City In The Distance At Dawn
#24 Strong Windows With Small Panes
#25 Back To Back
#26 Through Ancient Glass
#27 An Internal View Offers Little Vision Beyond Brick And Glass
#28 Looking Towards A Courtyard Shelter – Still Ankle-Deep In Cigarette Butts To This Day
#29 Homely Feel
#30 From On High
- You Might Also Like: 35 Times Actors Had To Do Just One Scene In The Whole Movie But Absolutely Nailed It
from Bored Panda https://ift.tt/ZfAUOEo
via IFTTT source site : boredpanda
