May 3, 2020
Facing the active parking lot for the walking paths the runs through Letchworth Village is an administrative building with no roof. A victim of arson years ago, the building is barely fenced and, upon our arrival, explorers walk freely within the crumbled walls that remain. In fact, people wandered through the Read more…
I had to consult this map of Letchworth Village to figure out what this building was, a wide open space that my wide angle lens just loved to shoot. It is named Attendants Building, but appeared to be a kind of communal gathering space. There was the usual raunchy graffiti, Read more…
The Hospital of a Farm Colony is always the saddest structure. Particularly at Letchworth Village‘s grounds, the birthplace of the human trial. Except the human trials performed at Letchworth were without consent. Inhumane a tremendous understatement, doctors–who classified patients as either “idiot,” “imbecile,” or “moron”–were reported to collect brains from Read more…
Jewish patients were able to worship on the premises of Letchworth Village after 1977, when Congregation B’nai Israel was built. The temple has been abandoned since the hospital closed in 1996. This was a favorite location to photograph for many reasons although it is just a single room. For one, Read more…
After my first visit to Letchworth Village in February, I knew that I would soon return. The expansive cluster of accessible remnants to the asylum for the physically and mentally disabled that was established over 100 years ago seems destined for eventual demolition… like in your next step through its Read more…
May 2, 2020
Creepy places on a beautiful day? Yes please. Emboldened by company and the bright blue sky, I watched the peeling paint in Rockland State Hospital‘s staff quarters. Following the sun’s rays out and about, there was just so much to explore. I wanted to take that hutch. We found it Read more…
April 25, 2020
As the United States entered World War I, New York City needed several harbor defenses. Fort Tilden on the Rockaway Peninsula was established within the military installations used in the War of 1812. But like other New York City forts, the end of The Cold War meant the tremendous concrete Read more…
April 22, 2020
With the New Moon and the remnants of the Lyrids Meteor Shower playing out, I knew my ceiling was not going to cut it tonight. I headed to the darkest place that is sorta nearby, Montauk Point: The End of Long Island. A great destination of Earth Day. It was Read more…
April 8, 2020
While putting my compost to the curb, she shined upon me. So I went back in, paused The Shawshank Redemption and got my camera. It was nice to stand square in the middle of the street in the dark, knowing Bay Ridge was already tucked in for another night, and Read more…
April 6, 2020
Gosh, if only I could spend my days driving and stopping at every place that tickles my fancy… Like this old farm. I just loved the contrast the open door created. Farming stuff Creeping closer… Time’s styling: shabby chic It felt nice to runaway… I’ll have to do it again. Read more…
April 5, 2020
This week’s photo excursion: the abandoned Harlem Valley State Hospital in Wingdale in New York’s Dutchess County. The hospital’s history, dating back to 1924, is much like the history of the State’s other rural farm colonies. Sprawling self-sufficient campus, catch-all for the “insane,” insulin shock therapy, eletro-shock therapy, ice-pick lobotomies Read more…
March 29, 2020
It’s always the staff quarters that are so much more accessible than other abandoned hospital parts. Sure they don’t promise the kind of eerie details so attractive to an urban explorer, but I enjoy the homeyness, the underpainting of comfort and safety as time and neglect peel the paint from Read more…
Every time I return to Staten Island Farm Colony’s remains it’s more brightly colored than the last. Because everyone is quarantining and it’s raining, I hoped I could have it all to myself–and I did. Though there was a shiny new fence securing my usual entrance off the Greenbelt Recreation Read more…
March 28, 2020
I had a list of decaying sites to hit on Staten Island, which is steadily becoming one of my favorite places to explore. It’s really close but feels so far away; it’s car friendly; and I pretty much never have to encounter anyone while there. Sure, that’s a skewed view Read more…
March 23, 2020
The first of many urbex missions I’m going to embark on as we’re cautioned to partake in solitary activities, this stop occurred before even gatherings of two were too much. I am happy to report I am listening to Cuomo now. The movie will begin in five momentsThe mindless voice Read more…
Sitting on the shoreline of Jacob Riis Park in the Rockaways is a decaying old hospital, the Neponsit Health Center… previously known as the The Nesponsit Beach Hospital for Children. It was a project of muckraker Jacob Riis who had exposed squalid living conditions in the tenements of New York Read more…
March 10, 2020
A sign of Spring, the Worm Full Moon, marks the reemergence of the earthworm from the thawing Earth. But there really wasn’t much freeze this winter! With the worms squiggling once again, the birds will return for feasting. Piece by piece, spring’s plan plays itself out–bringing blooms, renewal and rebirth. Read more…
February 29, 2020
The entirety of the Pilgrim State Farm Colony was powered by its own power plant, generating electricity through the burning of coal in a transfer of energy: from chemical to thermal to mechanical to, finally, electrical energy. Massive carbon emitters, the use of this kind of electricity has been phased Read more…
I said I’d be back. But this time, I brought reinforcement. Today’s photographic missions were all about entrance, chasing the light as it streamed within the decaying structures of both Kings Park State Hospital and Pilgrim State. First, Kings Park State Hospital. We explored the doctors’ cottages because of the Read more…
February 19, 2020
I’d like to rest my heavy head tonight on a bed of California stars… I’d like to lay my weary bones tonight on a bed of California stars 🎶 I’d love to feel your hand touching mine and tell me why I must keep working on. Yes I’d give my Read more…
February 16, 2020
A lover of vintage beauty, pin-up photoshoots have occurred at many stages of my life. And every time, these shoes! With a trip to Los Angeles on the calendar, I poured through my vintage attire for a new 2020 photoshoot with the pin-up dream team, Iconic Pin-ups. I say 2020 Read more…
February 3, 2020
Letchworth Village, established 1911 in Rockland County, New York, is a decaying farm colony that was once a progressive solution to caring for the physically and mentally disabled. And like Staten Island’s Willowbrook State School, the hospital’s treatment of its most vulnerable patients –children– prompted major legislative reforms in the Read more…
February 2, 2020
I hatched a scheme to take myself on another abandoned photography mission in light of a Sunday that would surely have lighter traffic. And it turned out to be perfect timing, with sunshine for my early start and heavy foreboding clouds behind the many decaying structures I’d meet with enthusiasm. Read more…
January 31, 2020
My report on Long Island’s Farm Colonies continues with an introductory visit to the former grounds of The Central Islip State Hospital. Like Kings Park State Hospital, Pilgrim State Hospital, and Edgewater State Hospital (not yet explored though mostly demolished and captured on video), the sprawling colony was intended to Read more…
January 7, 2020
First, embrace that you need to have some level of idiocy and foolishness to embark upon many a fruitful and rewarding venture. And understand just how unbecoming trying to appear unfoolish is, you–but a peon in this massive Universe. I mean really now. We’re all fools fiddling about– isn’t that Read more…
January 5, 2020
There were only a couple of things on my list I didn’t accomplish during the holiday break from school. Visiting Fairfield State Hospital in Newtown, Connecticut, a lead from a nice person I met while exploring the Seaside Sanatorium, was one of those “to-do”s. I was told the grounds were Read more…