First floor room in the main building of a U.S. Marine Hospital in Tennessee, constructed in 1937, after the original hospital was demolished to make way for a new updated one.
Photo: "Operator"
Last night I returned from a week long road trip in the South. I'm just starting to download the photos from the trip, so for now, here's an image from a Northern California bus yard taken last month. This is a 90 second exposure, taken at night, lit with an LED panel and flashlight.
Photo: "Watch"
Upper floor of a former Virginia State Hospital, which was repurposed as a medium-security men's correctional facility in the 1980's.
During operation of the correctional facility, this room was likely a multi-resource room for inmates, but when this room was part of the active hospital, this ward housed suicidal patients. This floor contained low dividing walls to give the patients a small amount of privacy, while also allowing the nurses to keep a close eye on the patients.
Photo: "Seclusion Room"
Seclusion room in the North Annex building at Mayview State Hospital in Pennsylvania.
The Enola Gay Hangar
This hangar at the Wendover Air Field in Wendover, Utah was once home to the Enola Gay, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Bomber responsible for deploying the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945.
(From the 2008 archives.)
Photo: "California's Past"
A train passes behind a group of buses at Northern California bus maintenance yard.
Night. Full moon. 90 seconds. Lit by moonlight.
Photo: "Chalked"
In one of the day rooms at Mayview State Hospital in Pennsylvania sits a lonely pool table. The cues were stacked on the rack and the chalk left next to the score counter, as though the game was played yesterday, but the paint chips covering the table tell a different story.
Photo: "Rounded Rust"
Wooden wheelchair in the basement of the tuberculosis ward at Mayview State Hospital in Pennsylvania.
Photo: "Repeating"
Corridor inside the colonial style administration building at a Virginia State Asylum, constructed in the late 1820's.
Photo: "Chipped"
Patient room inside the tubercular ward at Mayview State Hospital in Pennsylvania.
Photo: "704"
Northern California bus maintenance yard.
Night. Full moon. 120 seconds. Lit by ambient light + moonlight.
Not Every Photograph I Take Is Artistic, But That's OK
Sometimes while photographing abandoned buildings, I snap images strictly for documentation purposes.
In this case, Mayview State Hospital in Pennsylvania was already in the process of being demo'd when I saw the campus for the first time. For that reason, I shot more building exteriors and photos out windows than I have in the past. In particular, the tubercular wards on the campus were some of the oldest remaining buildings and I felt they were worth a few shots.
In a few decades nothing will remain of this former asylum, but hopefully images like this will help people see what once was.
Photo: "Ascendants"
Spiral staircase in the administration building of a Virginia State Hospital. This campus is the fifth oldest asylum in the United States and was in use from 1820's until the 1950's when the campus was moved down the street.
Photo: "Let the Light Seep In"
Standing inside a roofless bus at a bus maintenance yard in Northern California.
(Night. Full moon. 2 minutes exposure. Lit by LED and incandescent flashlights combined with moonlight.)
Photo: "Out of Ideas"
Lightbulb hangs in a patient room of a former psychiatric hospital in Virginia.