In October of 2016, my close friend and project partner secured us extremely rare access to photograph the State Hospital. Upon arrival, we hadn't even made it up the drive to the main building before a white security car flew up and the officer rolled his window down, signaling

us to do the same. "Can i help you gentlemen?" he asked, clearly very suspicious of why we were there. "We're here to see John" my friend replied. John was not very friendly to be honest. He was not happy to have to let us into the buildings, and told us that we had approximately

two hours to see what we could before we would have to leave. Two hours, to see and photograph a 600,000 square foot property of 44 buildings. Cheers bud. By a stroke of good luck, a bad storm the night prior had cut the power to roughly 95% of the main building, which meant that

John was busy, and we would be led around by a security officer. Driving up to the front of the main building, watching the key turn in the lock of the front door, and stepping inside was a special experience. The sight before me was grand. Marble flooring and beautiful plaster

scrollwork stretched upwards inside a 3 story central atrium, topped with a stained glass skylight. I was struck by the warmth inside the lobby on this cold fall day. We were escorted to the legendary main staircase, taking that to the top and then out onto the roof behind

Administration. After a few minutes of shooting, our security officer friend was called elsewhere, and a plumber who had worked at the hospital for decades took his place. This plumber was incredibly kind and friendly, and went above and beyond running through the main building

with us, trying to show us as many highlights as he could in the remaining time that we had. We covered the vast labyrinth of tunnels, the maintenance shops (which still had a skeleton crew running the utilities), the gym, powerhouse, one of the two chapels, many connecting

hallways and a ward or two before running over to the Medical Services building to see the radiology department, labs and morgue. At the appointed time, we met John back in the lobby. "See everything you wanted?". "Sure did" we replied, knowing full well that we had missed a ton.

As we walked out the door, i cast a final backward glance into that beautiful lobby, thinking that i would never return.