The lure of abandoned places — even blogs

After spotting it in the NY Times Book Review Sunday morning I pre-ordered this 216 page book of Christoper Payne's photographs, taken in 70 abandoned psychiatric hospitals in 30 states over 6 years. Oliver Sacks wrote the accompanying essay. 6 years of photographing abandoned hospitals sounds like a dream-come-true to me — but only because I have no idea how much paperwork and jumping-through-hoops must have been involved in setting up each shoot. I hope Payne writes about the process and the cameras used.

As I write this, one of J's photos of the Northampton State Hospital sits on my desk. I thought that I'd posted about the music installation we witnessed there many years ago, but searched and couldn't find it here. I then realized I must have posted it on my first, brief and mostly unread myspace blog, which turned out to be training wheels for Secret Notebooks. I launched it in February 2007 and wrote sporadic short entries through the spring. By July, however, the blogging bug had bit and I was posting almost daily. It's no surprise that by August I'd decided to begin the "official" blog you're reading now. The myspace blog, less personal and more true to my original vision for a blog (esoteric with links to quirky stories) sits inaccessible (except to me) and abandoned (I think myspace in general has been abandoned, and it sounds like Facebook is experiencing an exodus en masse as well. Count me in.). I thought i would be fun to occasionally repost some of those early entries here, just for fun, and to gather them all in one place. I don't remember writing half of them.

But here's the post about the Northampton State Hospital, which I do remember.

the catch and release of ghosts

this inspiring nytimes article about seth wulsin's haunting transformation of a former prison building in buenos aires into a transient piece of artwork reminds me of a similar piece i was lucky enough to experience first-hand in northampton mass, nov. 18, 2000.

"The State Hospital: In Memoriam was organized by artist Anna Schuleit to memorialize the former Northampton State Hospital in Northampton, MA, and to promote civic dialogue about the mental health system in America. The project centered around Habeas Corpus, a one-time site-specific sound installation of J.S. Bach's Magnificat, through which Schuleit endeavored to honor the building by "making it sing in memory of the thousands of individuals whose lives were affected by the institution."
— quote from artusa.com

with it's gaping windows thrown open like a mouth, the decaying victorian building sang for 28 minutes. a hushed crowd had climbed the hill and gathered together, including many former patients. tattered curtains fluttered in the breeze, glass window panes mirrored the gray november sky. the lightest flakes of snow fell down around us. i hope the music stirred the last of the building's ghosts, and that the open windows finally released them. i bid them a safe journey as they slipped away, and sensed the building exhale.

there are spectacular images of the abandoned state hospital buildings here. the property has since been redeveloped, despite an effort to preserve "old main."