Comments

great pic

i agree with doug you deffintly need to come out with a book Motts.

is this some kind of demented art project the children were working on?

Its like your doing what I always wanted to do my whole life, God, I need more adventurous friends.

I will say that the pictures is worth a thousand words. In ohio where i live a man was cleaniing out the attic of a house he recently bought and had never known the history (it was purchased during an esate auction) While cleaning we found a pine box that had a name brand casket companys name on it when we opened it there was a new casket inside. The shipping date was from 1982 and this was in 2003. After asking around we learned a lady lived ther in her eighties and had no family and died in a nursing home. He sold the casket for a prop. but was interesting.

wow thats cool lookin !whats like written all over the wall??

I know somone who pays thousands for old clothes like that.

I know what you're saying, entirely. I am very much a skeptic when it comes to most everything. I fully support all sciences, and despite the mistakes of the past, I believe that science will prevail. However, the fact is, horror stories will always be with us, and I say good. Looking at a rotting insane asylum is scary, because insanity is scary (to those that are "sane") and decay reminds of our own death. Seeing a building that was once teeming with life and is now being eaten away by mold and bacteria is a bit like seeing inside our own coffins. So people get freaked out and they imagine scary things. It doesnt mean the things they post here are true. The above pic is scary if you think of a schizophrenic making it (and only because of the terror of schizophrenia, not because they are harmful) and harmless if you think of bored kids who resent being locked up. It really doesnt matter at all. People will always believe what they want to believe, regardless of the facts. Unfortunately.

You know. I just read and responded to a post of yours (Danny) where you were openly admonishing everyone for not talking more about "art"

I didn't realize that your admonishment applied to everyone but you.

If you could see inside them all, it would not be nearly as interesting. Like with anything i suppose. Beautiful shot

Danny~

You are correct, this site is about art. It's about the awesome photography of some of the most fascinating places.

However, when you find garbage posted about how person Y went into A building and did Z with their friends... Or other garbage where a trash incinerator was used to cremate unclaimed bodies....
The examples could continue.

You want to reeducate the mislead. Not because anyone of us want to be preachy about Mental Health Care or any other Health Care in that matter.
You want them to understand that these places were indeed horrific in the past for some people, as well as a safe haven for others.

Unfortunately, when working to get points across, express memories of the people who lived and worked in these buildings.
There are people who come around
and call them liars, and try to tell everyone else on here that they are right, and those of us who might know better are dead wrong.

We don't try to romanticize these places.

But what would you do if you saw a rust stain on the wall(coming from a piece of metal on the door), and someone insists that it's blood, and you are in the medical field and know darn well what blood looks like, at various ages, because you have dealt with it.
You would want to correct them, yes?
Or would you let them perpetuate the horror stories that society won't let die?

Just curious.

Life ends in death. Sad, i guess, but a fact. Kids die, moms die, gramma's die. Its ok. No one was making any specific comments about anyone else's dead kids.

Lynne,
I'm sure you are a good person who cares very much about the mentally and physically handicapped. It's quite obvious that you are on some type of crusade to get rid of the negative stigma surrounding mental health care, and thats good. Many people don't get the help they need because of all the negative images attached to being "crazy" so to speak. I am all for viewing things as they are. However, I was under the impression that this web site was devoted to the photography of urban decay. This is art. The above picture, whether or not it was just a joke or whatever, is still a strong image, and "the pit of oblivion" fits perfectly as a description of depression as well as a description of institutiional life, whether it be in a mental hospital or a prison. Being locked up is no fun.

Why was Mona Lisa smiling? Why did Paul McCartney write "Yesterday"? I don't nor want to know why. I make my own explanations.

When you have pictures of rotting structures in front of you, are you going to think of the helpful doctor and the smiling nurse, or the "Nurse Ratchetts" of the world? It would be like trying to have a wedding in a cemetary. Im sorry to ramble on, but I feel like Motts is trying to show some of the beauty in decay and death, and, in a way he is helping to "de-myth" these places, but everyone wants to turn it into a politcal issue. The problem is that this isnt the place. We're all just looking at some beautiful pictures.

Wandered these obscence places and once got lost when I did window pane, remember?

Jesus, y'all - look who's back! The ghost of our dear departed friend, Thomas Covenant! 8`-)

P.S. Danny, have you spent any time in a functioning morgue with real children who have died or have you ever actually lost a child? The humor dies down a little at that point. Black humor doesn't bother me when it's something you do to handle dealing with death when you have to face it, especially on a day to day basis like some folks do.