Photo: "Morgue Table"

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This New York psychiatric hospital opened to the public in 1931 with 60 only male patients, though they had beds to support over 5,000. The hospital was designed as a "theraputic suburb," where patients could leave the noise and pollution of the city and seek treatments to cure their illness. By 1959, the hospital reached it peak and was home to 9,000 residents, including a staff of 2,000.  

Photo: "HBF"

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Blast furnace pipes at the former Homestead Steel Works in Pennsylvania.

When I saw these pipes and metal stencil labels, I knew I had to photograph them. Problem was they were about 2ft above my head and the light was fading. I bumped the cameras ISO up to 12,800 and took this shot. With a little noise reduction in Lightroom, the image is certainly usable online. I'm going to begin printing a few mid-sized test prints of images shot with high ISO's to see how well the Mark III noise translates to print.

Photo: "Steel Organs"

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The Homestead Steel Works, which was purchased by U.S. Steel Works in the late 1800's, closed in 1986 and the land surrounding this derelict factory is now a National Historic Landmark. The blast furnaces (above) were constructed in 1907 and are all that remain of this massive structure. 

During operation, this factory contained 450 buildings and produced 200 million tons of steel per year during its peak. 

(Historic Photo: Http://Bit.Ly/ZXhZZS)

Photo: "Cooling Towers"

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The Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Plant in Herald, California is a decommissioned power plant that began operation in 1975. The plant shut down a few months after opening, due to a turbine failure, which left the plant closed for thirteen of the eighteen months it had been in operation. After a number of mishaps over the course of the fourteen year operation, the plant closed due to public vote. 

Photo: "The Last Dawn"

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Dawn inside Building F at Mayview State Hospital in Pennsylvania. 

Mayview State Hospital was a psychiatric hospital constructed near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1892. It remained in operation for over 100 years before the last building closed in 2008. Currently the hospital is undergoing demolition and many of the buildings have already been torn down.