Saturday, April 19, 2014

Confinement



PHOTOGRAPHER'S JOURNAL:  How is it that our noblest aspirations so easily fall victim to meanness, greed and abuse - become magnets for it? Or were predatory instincts driving things from the start? For the first time I find myself counting on two hands the number of similar campuses abandoned and shuttered that I've photographed or tried to photograph. We hope the laws that closed them offer protection against similar abuse, but we close such places even as we deny liberty to more people than ever before in history, and we use a more blunt architectural style to confine them. Does the change in style reflect any changes in our values, and who is the "we" that can make a difference?



4 comments:

Ginnie Hart said...

I'm following this series, Ted, almost in horror. I keep wondering what you will show next!

I worked in a psychiatric hospital my first year of marriage back in 1969-70. I'll never forget it...but am thankful I have no horrid memories of THAT place.

Emery Roth said...

I hope the place you worked was more humane than Pennhurst. Yes, some people have found these latest posts too dark, but that's what I have, Thanks for following.

Ginnie Hart said...

Your images are "dark," Ted, but absolutely spot-on for what you are depicting. I see another book!

Emery Roth said...

You say the nicest things! Thank you.