Creepy And Cool All Over

I'll get half-sappy for a moment. One of my big mentors (though he never really knew it) is my buddy Bill. He's a bigshot photog on Capitol Hill. I knew a lot of the photographers at the newspapers I worked at, but Bill and I were cool with the same punk bands and making fun of our co-workers Sheila and Kelly.

When I first started taking interest in photography, Bill was cool about it, but I am sure he was skeptical and probably heard that from lots of people he knew. It did take me awhile to get my first camera and some basic gear, but I think that showed him that I wasn't insane. Then it was a matter of showing him that I wasn't a total hack.

After that was proven, he started offering to have me tag along with him on photo shoots so I could see how he works. One of the shoots we went on was at this abandoned asylum/juvenile hospital out in Maryland outside DC. It was not exactly kosher for us to be on the property, so we got to play the role of photographers and spy at the same time, which added some intrigue to the afternoon.

The light was amazing that day, and the rooms, hallways and various buildings we snuck through were amazing spaces. Some great chipped walls and ashen floors. Chairs still lingered in knooks and other creepy aspects were interesting and scary to find. One building was clearly the isolation ward, and it did not look like a fun place to spend an hour, let alone a sentence. Another was the medical care center, which still had a bunch of "equipment" strewn everywhere, stuff that I'm glad there was not a woman around to comment on.

Everything just looked like the whole place was functioning on a Tuesday, everyone went home and just never came back. Totally deserted. Among the most shocking was all the log books still all over the place, describing inmate activities and all sorts of things I found disturbing. I wish we had gone back for more visits to better document the grounds and the place as a whole, but we were only there for about 5 or 6 hours. Here's the first batch of photos I'll show you. Next week I will share the second batch. My personal favorite is the one above, this ultra-spooky nursery where rusted cribs were stacked around. The one we shot had just this stream of light from a doorway painting it, and it really had a creepy feel.

As always, hope you like the slideshow. Thanks to Bill for the inspiration and constant goading to keep shooting. If you want to see any of my other work, check out a gallery from the menu over on the top right.