Last Sunday I drove down to Salem(OR) and hooked up with my friend Barry. We took digital shots of the Oregon State Hospital (known as the Oregon State Insane Asylum back at its inception in 1883). Knowing that demolition was taking place we went to document what we could: Barry informed me later that much of the facility that was set to be torn down had already been torn down. Judging from this image I would readily agree: though the cupola above the main building is still there most of the building to our right of the frame is gone.
Anyway, below are some fairly random shots taken on a clear, beautiful day in Salem, Oregon...
Exterior of Oregon State Hospital, looking south from Center Street
Enough crosses to give Jesus the willies
Shadows having fun
The links of chain curve back again...
I feel a chill coming on
Mural, mural on the wall, who will listen to your call?
I played with the contrast/exposure and
ended up with a kind of Bat Building effect
We headed over to the waterfront for
asphalt-combing in the old Boise Cascade lot...
Golden Tales of Summer's Promise
We talked to a gentleman working security for the state hospital, who emphasized that we could take pictures as long as we did not take any images of the patients. I did take one image of the basketball court that was famously used in Milos Forman's film version of Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest--the court presented itself as a rather no-nonsense nightmare of wire and despair. I didn't want to upset any of the security team so one quick image was all I managed. A friend of mine was in the film (the entirely deceased Phil Roth) and so I present this image in his honor!
Barry has posted more images from last Sunday at his photography blog.
++++
One last thought: The Shining meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
++++
Comments
He wanted to go into politics. His idol was Mark Hatfield, who was his professor at Willamette University. Instead of sleeping at night, my dad did several extra helpings of the things that "normal" social climbers do. He was a member of the Young Republicans, and the Junior Chamber of Commerce, and he was doing law school, and he had a job as assistant trust officer at US Bank. He got up at five in the morning sometimes to play tennis with his boss before work. He went to hockey games with all the right people.
So he started having hallucinations, hearing mysterious radio messages, got the trademark odd schizophrenic sense of meaning, the whole nine yards. He got an official diagnosis and the thorazine shakes.
What would have happened?--if some different kind of doctor had told him: You're OK. What you're trying to do is not. Limit yourself to the workload of a normal person. Sleep at night. Explore doing things that please you personally.
I wonder.
--Alan
Thanks for the thoughtful note.
++++