Since their construction in the mid-19th century, the imposing psychiatric hospitals across North America have occupied a unique place in the country’s architectural landscape. From 2002 to 2008, Christopher Payne visited 70 such institutions in 30 states, photographing their immense façades and crumbling interiors. Some seem almost to have been abandoned by their occupants the night before. Payne documents how these hospitals functioned, many like self-sufficient towns that produced almost all of their own resources: food, water, electricity, even shoes and clothing. Since many of these hospitals have been demolished, Payne’s images are one of the last remaining traces of this bygone era.
Christopher Payne (b. 1968) is a photographer based in New York. He specializes architectural ruins and industrial landscapes in America.
Asylum : InsIde the Closed World of state mental hospItals, Christopher Payne
Until November 28
Exhibition
St-art
parc des expositions
7 place adrien Zeller
hall 20
Strasbourg
