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I work as a freelance web/CD-ROM interactive programmer and designer.

Around 30 seconds or so.

Anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute or two. I use a Hoya R72, but this photo isn't true infrared, it was processed with a black and white filter.

Paint chips and debris from the rotting ceiling.

Shoot! Then loot!!!! =)

Favourite!

Great shot! I love those windows.

That room down the bottom looks very chilling

This is what comes to mind for me when looking at this- "walking into a nightmare."

The dead seek out justice and retribution from staff atrocities. Let there be no mistake the only sin presentt in these hallow halls are the diabolical sins of staff. The light at the end of this "HOLY CORRIDOR" is the smiting of sin by GODS mighty fist. GOD is a loving deity but his wrath is fruitful.

I don't know why, but it never seems right that these things are left where they are O.o

Nice use of light and angle

The building looks really out of place

Random question, but what was your exposure time?

I grew up in the Pottstown area near Spring City. As a junior high school student, I first visited Pennhurst on a health class field trip. It seemed an inappropriate place for young teenagers to "learn," and, in fact, one of the boys in our group passed out cold when the place became too much for his sensibilities. Pennhurst was shocking simply as an institution. It was even more shocking to see groups of retarded and mentally ill people housed like this. I would visit Pennhurst two more times before it closed. A few years after my school visit to Pennhurst, my mother took a job there as a ward assistant. It was her job to watch over and care for the patients. Two times in the year or so she worked there, I accompanied her to the facility for reasons I cannot recall. I remember being approached by "Elvis," a patient who was intent on trying to charm me with his animal magnetism. While my mother had the psychological fortitude to deal with the daily, sometimes mundane but often disturbing realities of caring for institutionalized mentally ill patients, she eventually had to leave her job because of abuse she witnessed. She filed a complaint, but nothing significant came of it. The sheer helplessness and bizarre behavior of such human beings in such an environment makes them extraordinarily vulnerable. To be their caregiver demands an almost superhuman level of patience, compassion, alertness and sometimes physical strength. This is not work suited to those who simply need a paycheck, and that is where I think the disconnect lies. But, tell me, where would you find the number of people needed who also happened to possess the virtues to care for helpless people with integrity, to provide physical assistance with compassion, to nurture psychologically with respect? And to do it five days a week, no matter what. It's a tall order. Not many people could do it. I couldn't. And I thank God for those who can.