I used to have a Data Entry job... Supervisor got sick of us constantly making "bathroom runs" (yeah right, cafeteria was right around the corner). I think she would have found this to be a good solution to our "problem...
Why even bother... Reminds me of another photo I saw somewhere else of Byberry, some goofy paintings someone did of some girl with dolls in her pockets (the photographer joked that he couldn't tell actually if they were dolls or kids) and of some hot dog vendor with a "Cinzano" umbrella over his cart with the letters arranged so that it looked like it said "inzano"... Was there any sincerity in any of these paintings, or a trace of mockery, both??
I've never even driven by Byberry... I've only lived in NE Philly for about I dunno, 7 years or so now. I'm actually getting an MSW now to work in the mental health field and worked this last year in an acute psych unit at another hospital in Philly that, thank God, is nothing AT ALL like Byberry. I got interested in this place after working on a paper about the history of the hospital where I was interning... Now part of me actually is seriously interested in checking out Byberry myself. Why, I don't know, I mean, I've actually had patients who were there as kids, dead serious. They went through total hell there. But I'm grateful for these photos cuz they're the only way now that I'm going to have any idea at all what they went through. And I kind've want to know, too, since I actually am someone who has a psychiatric illness myself. I look at this place and realize how lucky I am that psychiatry has improved like it has and that as a patient I actually have rights-- like the right to refuse treatment, something that could have actually saved some of the people at this place. As for graffiti and fires, as far as I'm concerned, go ahead and do whatever you want. I'd make my mark, too, to be honest, to prove I was there. I know this isn't where other people are probably coming from, but for me, I'd want to make it known that I was in there and made it out alive. Too many other people didn't have the chance to. I'd be doing it for them. And if it's desecration, what, is this the Louvre?? Get real! Come on now. Breaking the crap out of this place would probably be karmic retribution at this point. If that's the case, think of Anna and all the other patients who went through sheer hell in there day in and day out and beat the living daylights out of every inch of those buildings. Sorry for ranting, but I had to say all this. Anyway, thanks again for the great photos, Ed. They rock.