[Faline]

Though insane asylums, prisons and hospitals wouldn't necessarily be the first places that come to mind when you're thinking about beautiful places to shoot, you might find photographers Ian Ference and Katherine Westerhout there. These two have made it their mission to find beauty in the decrepit, stories in the forgotten and stunning imagery where most would never look. While Ian Ference mostly shoots inside abandoned buildings in New York, Westerhout has shot in everywhere from Philadelphia, Buffalo, and Detroit to Southeast Asia.

Though most of these photos have that ability to make your skin crawl, you might be surprised at the range of emotions you can feel while looking at them. In fact, you might even ask yourself these questions. Who once sat in that chair and what were they thinking as they looked out the window?

Top of the grand stairwell, Brooklyn Navy Yard Hospital, 2008:



Chair in patient bedroom, shot by moonlight, Taunton State Hospital, 2006:



Easy chairs and patient art, Creedmoor State Hospital, 2008:



Attic of administrative wing of Babcock Hall, South Carolina State Hospital, 2008:



Connector hallway between wards, Trenton State Hospital, 2005:



Violent ward hallway now used to store chairs, St. Lawrence State Hospital, 2007:



Patient dormitory at sundown, Buffalo State Hospital, 2008:



A typical dark room at Brooklyn Navy Yard Hospital, 2009:



The first floor hallway of the center brick ward, Buffalo State Hospital, 2008:



Operating room in Fort Totten Army Hospital, Queens, 2009:



Child’s riding grasshopper found in Fort Totten Army Hospital, Queens, 2009:



Kings Park Psychiatric Center, Building 40, 2004:



Kings Park Psychiatric Center, Building 93, 2004:



New Orleans, 2005:



Pilgrim Psychiatric Center, NY, 2004:



Sears, San Francisco, 2001:



Bethlehem Steel, Lackawanna, 2008:



Bethlehem Steel, Lackawanna II, 2008:



Lake and Rail Elevator, Buffalo NY, 2008:



School Room, San Francisco, 1998:



Spaulding Fiber, Tonawanda, 2008:




Protestant Church, Detroit, 2009:



Eastern State Penitentiary II, 2009:



Wards VI, San Francisco, 2001:



Eastern State Penitentiary III, Cell Block Three, 2009:



http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/...ling-photos-of

[kellyhound]

weird to abandon a church and leave everything in it.
Great images.

[King Herald]

I wouldn't exactly call all of them 'Bone Chilling', but they're well cool.

[Faline]

Originally Posted by King Herald ↗

I wouldn't exactly call all of them 'Bone Chilling', but they're well cool.

Title that came with the pics where i found them.

[Jere]

[NEVERBACKZ]

Amazing. I can actually picture somebody sitting in that chair lookin out the window and trying to make sense of the world they were living in. Probably long dead now and its just begs the question what IS it all about??

Anyway great pics

[King Herald]

Originally Posted by NEVERBACKZ ↗

I can actually picture somebody sitting in that chair lookin out the window and trying to make sense of the world they were living in.

Did you see the movie, Born on the 4th of July? The young soldier, in the Vets hospital, with no arms and legs, just sitting, staring out of the window. Just a brief glimpse of him as the camera passes by, but the look on his face tells you all you need to know about him and his future.

[Ariana_21]

scary

[Gutmutilator]

the rooms of silence

[Sharon]

Fantastic thread