asylum: inside the closed world of state mental hospitals
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“Payne is a visual poet as well as an architect by training, and he has spent years finding and photographing these buildingsâoften the pride of their local communities and a powerful symbol of humane caring for those less fortunate. His photographs are beautiful images in their own right, and they also pay tribute to a sort of public architecture that no longer exists. They focus both on the monumental and the mundane, the grand facades and the peeling paint.”
âOliver Sacks, Asylum
For more than half the nation’s history, vast mental hospitals were a prominent feature of the American landscape. From the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth, over 250 institutions for the insane were built throughout the United States; by 1948, they housed more than a half million patients. The blueprint for these hospitals was set by Pennsylvania hospital superintendant Thomas Story Kirkbride: a central administration building flanked symmetrically by pavilions and surrounded by lavish grounds with pastoral vistas. Kirkbride and others believed that well-designed buildings and grounds, a peaceful environment, a regimen of fresh air, and places for work, exercise, and cultural activities would heal mental illness. But in the second half of the twentieth century, after the introduction of psychotropic drugs and policy shifts toward community-based care, patient populations declined dramatically, leaving many of these beautiful, massive buildingsâand the patients who lived in themâneglected and abandoned.
Architect and photographer Christopher Payne spent six years documenting the decay of state mental hospitals like these, visiting seventy institutions in thirty states. Through his lens we see splendid, palatial exteriors (some designed by such prominent architects as H. H. Richardson and Samuel Sloan) and crumbling interiorsâchairs stacked against walls with peeling paint in a grand hallway; brightly colored toothbrushes still hanging on a rack; stacks of suitcases, never packed for the trip home.
Accompanying Payne’s striking and powerful photographs is an essay by Oliver Sacks (who described his own experience working at a state mental hospital in his book Awakenings). Sacks pays tribute to Payne’s photographs and to the lives once lived in these places, “where one could be both mad and safe.”…….
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2009-12-06
By Iris Gersten
That book is wonderful! The pictures really capture the loneliness and alienation of a patient diagnosed with mental illness.
And the essay by Oliver Sacks is very informative and interesting.
I strongly recommend it to anyone who is fascinated with asylums.
2009-12-03
By John Rygielski III
These words used by Oliver Sacks in the foreword make perfect sense when viewing these photographs by Christopher Payne. I enjoyed the foreword, as it paints a picture of what these institutions were supposed to be, not just what they’ve become. Without such an introduction, the impact of these images is not fully realized. As much as I know you’ll want to skip ahead, I recommend reading the foreword first, it’s worth it in the end.
The words “asylum” and “mental hospital” don’t conjure up the most comforting of thoughts. These places have been the setting for so many horror flicks and books that we instinctively go there in our minds upon hearing their name. But this book does not portray them in such a light. If there is any disturbance, it’s our own head imagining us being there, not anything intentionally frightening about the pictures. The images range from documentary to breathtaking. There are a lot of images here, more than I thought would be when I purchased the book. Although I am a big fan of black and white, the color photographs are what impressed me the most, especially the interiors. I can only think to describe the tone as cool, yet peaceful.
This book is well worth it.
2009-10-13
By Elizabeth M. Moore (marion, oh usa)
This book is haunting and fascinating. The photography is beautiful; and the forward is very interesting, giving much detail as to the rise and fall of the asylum in our American history. This book is everything I hoped it would be. I’ve spent hours perusing its pages.
2009-10-09
By Asylum Historian
The book is beautiful but there is a lot of empty space in the book which left me dissatisfied.
Numerous Blank Pages raise the question was the book proofed before publishing and if so what is the intent of a page being part of the page numbering sequence of the book but having nothing on it.
Is there any explanation for all the blank pages amongst the photos?
Additionally, I found the book to be as empty in content as some of the pictures portray the places the author visited. The inclusion of an essay doesn’t make it a typical coffee table photography book and certainly leads into the pictures and provides background. The essay tries to convey the story of these places and with that being said I felt that each picture could have used a little description and/or anecdote. Instead of just a photograph with a label stating where each picture was taken I feel the reader would have enjoyed a little background on the picture presented. Whether it be a description or history of something in the photograph or a little history on the hospital I felt that was something needed to keep me really into the book instead of just quickly turning the pages. If there was something there with the photography to read the book would have been much more of an experience for the reader.
2009-10-06
By Book Collector (Savannah, GA)
This collection of photographs contains an illuminating forward by Oliver Sachs and beautiful, melancholy views of historically significant architecture that should have been preserved. There’s also an interesting section at the end about the tragic destruction of Danvers State Hospital in Boston, the magnificent building that first piqued my interest in this subject. I look forward to seeing more from this photographer.
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