Jeremy Harris's asylum photographs

When I was a teenager, I spent quite a few nights with friends exploring an abandoned mental institution in my hometown. Apparently, photographer Jeremy Harris digs that sort of thing too. His engaging and provocative photo series titled American Asylum is hanging in my favorite San Francisco cafe, Progressive Grounds. Seeing the photos in this context, above the cream and sugar for example, make them especially surreal. Link (Flash site)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

MORE: Art and Design

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

annieo

Right on Jeremy! Always a fan of his work…
License Farm

@ #3 David: Probably because the view is best thing you can say about any of these institutions.

I liked photo #7 with the assortment of all the toothbrushes (the colors of which lead me to believe the asylum in question probably has only been closed perhaps a dozen years). Some of the hallway shots reminded me of the dorm I lived in my first two years of college. (It was a ratty, ghetto dorm, but we were proud of it. They’ve since completely remodeled it; I’ve not seen the after, and I’m not sure I’d want to.)

Unlike many abandoned asylum pics I’ve seen, most of these didn’t inspire creepiness or melancholia, just a sense of the inevitability of all things.
Anonymous

Reminds me of the Asylum level in Psychonauts. Nice pics indeed.
mapinchera

I did an interview with John Gray (another abandoned asylum explorer/photographer) for “Bizarre” magazine a few years ago, highlighting some of his best photos.

His main asylum of investigation was the former Danvers State Asylum, outside of Boston, which is now being turned into condominiums.

John Gray has chronicled his explorations, and included a history lesson on the Danvers facility:

http://www.danversstateinsaneasylum.com
Antinous

His main asylum of investigation was the former Danvers State Asylum

I remember driving by Danvers in the early 60s when I was a child and thinking “If Alfred Hitchcock did a film about the Addams Family…”
mrmule

go check out abandoned places
http://www.abandoned-places.com/

full of creepy derelict buildings/hospitals mmmmmmm
Anonymous

Just wanted to add the best site I’ve seen for photos of abandoned places is http://opacity.us
(No I’m not associated with the site at all, just a fan of his work)
Ranc0r37

I have an extensive image gallery. Not as flashy as Jeremy Harris’s site but still some good shots. Someone mentioned Seaview. I also have many shots of that place. http://37i.net/gallery2/v/george/
interestedincreepy

Where is Longview? I live in Cincinnati for awhile now, but I can’t seem to find records or anything as to where it is. Is it even still standing?
ashley927

Something about my morbid side really likes these pictures…
Anonymous

Something about those photos really reminds me of the cityscapre and interiors in Half-Life 2… only me?
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

Rancor: We don’t usually like people posting links to their own sites, but yours is relevant. It’s cool to see that you were plonking around at Sea View. I liked the photo of the old laundry equipment. Have you see the Forgotten NY page about Sea View? They said the floors were rotting, but there were still some really nice terra-cotta murals on the fourth floor of the main building.

(Can you tell I used to live on Staten Island?)

It’s weird to think they abandoned the place — once the top tuberculosis hospital in the country — because the drug treatments developed there had supposedly made such hospitals unnecessary. Now we’re looking at an increasingly nasty resurgence of drug-resistant tuberculosis.

If you’re taking photos on Staten Island, have you found the abandoned graveyard? I know how to find it if I’m driving. I just now looked for it using Google Maps in satellite photo mode, and I believe it’s just south of Richmond Terrace between Alaska Street and Van Street, some blocks east of Clove Road. I found it one day while I was waiting for my car stereo to be fixed at the auto repair place on the other side of Richmond Terrace. You go up what looks like the front walk of a now-vanished house. Wear trousers, sturdy shoes, a long-sleeved shirt, and bug repellent. I strongly recommend taking one or more friends along.

The graveyard was unfenced when I was there, and had obviously not been taken care of in ages. Tombstones had been tipped over or picked up by tree roots. Brush, weeds, and sapling trees were growing everywhere. The slope down toward the backyards of the houses along Alaska Street was eroding, and some of the householders had re-established their property lines by marking them with random chunks of tombstones that had washed down.

Someone told me a couple of years ago that the graveyard had been cleaned up, but I’m not sure they were talking about the same one. If it’s still there and still in dilapidated but accessible condition, you should be able to take some interesting photos.

(And now that I’m thinking of it, I should tell Forgotten NY about it as well.)
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

We have a note from erpietri@earthlink.net, a.k.a. Forgotten NYC, on abandoned graveyards in Staten Island:

There are 2 in the area; both have been fenced off in recent years. An organization called Friends of Abandoned Cemeteries has been sprucing up the island cemeteries.

It’s a virtuous act, though it’s frustrating for photographers.
JeremyHarris

Thanks all, for the positive feedback!

Motts @ opacity was a huge influence of mine, and actually took me up to MA to see a few asylums (we missed Danvers) a couple of years ago. Cool guy. Amazing photographer.

For those interested, I’ll be showing 12-13 new pieces in a group show with my friends Brian Holliday and William Francis.

DERELICTIONS

@ the Rite Spot Cafe
2099 Folsom St, SF

Opening reception this Sunday April 6th, from 6-9.
genericvox

Reminds me more of Silent Hill than the other games mentioned.
Jeff

Reminds me of this great big, old, Amercian Gothic mental hospital where I would work from time to time when I was in high school. It was torn down a few years ago. What a spook house.
AJM333

Love this kind of stuff. Thanks for posting all the links to other people’s work.
Rezmason

This reminds me of The Hospital:

http://hospital.apoka.com/

…and of 99 Rooms:

http://www.99rooms.com/

There’s something ghastly appealing about abandoned buildings. The design firm “Belief” used to have a video too, I’ll post a URL if I can find it…
carlo

Which abandoned mental institution was in your hometown? Mine was Seaview. Definitely a creepy, creepy place.

There is always a heavy air in these places, ghosts? Maybe. In my hometown there were two mainstays who hung out in the place weekly Graffiti writers and Occult practitioners. So you could always find empty cans or mutilated animals strewed about. Fun!
David Pescovitz

In Cincinnati, it was Longview. (Why is it always a “view”?)
Stephen

A product placement in an article, in this case for Windows Mobile, inherently effects content. It is part of the content by the very fact of being a product placement rather than an ad.
lono

check out the sweet bong in the travel portfolio # 19… lol
todayinart

Wow, these are some excellent photos! He really captures the texture and feel of the places.
Anonymous

Check out this site for pics of abandonded places..
http://www.abandonedbutnotforgotten.com/

Pics are not as high quality, but I think the ones of the Mental Institutions are creepier as they are taken at night.