On my third trip to Northampton State Hospital I tried a few surreal photographic techniques…not all of which I am that happy with 20 years later. I have included my original edits as well as a few re-edits I made using modern tools. Lightroom’s AI features, including de-noise and remove, are amazing. Removing graffiti from walls is trivial now, something that was prohibitively difficult back when I shot these. I am also impressed with the quality of the photographs my Canon 20D was able to take, especially when I can clean them up with modern tools.
This was our first big foray into the main Kirkbride but it was certainly not our last. Finding our way to the theater was a major accomplishment. We were also able to pick our way through to the kitchen and cafeteria, which was not a straightforward path to follow. We encountered the first group of other explorers I ever met inside a building. We asked them where the morgue was and they gave us directions, but we were not able to find it this day. It was a friendly exchange, and then we all moved on to our own artistic endeavors.
The building creaked and moaned in the way it always did, making it seem alive (and in danger of collapsing).
