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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was our first big foray into the main Kirkbride but it was certainly not<\/a> our<\/a> last<\/a>. Finding our way to the theater was a major accomplishment. We were also able to pick our way through to the kitchen<\/a> 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<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The building creaked and moaned in the way it always did, making it seem alive (and in danger of collapsing).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t