This past Friday I traveled to the remains of Henryton sanitarium with Kelly Heck and model Michelle Harris for an urban exploration fashion shoot. The shoot was for a project I am working on in my staged image studio for school. The idea was to take the concept of fashion photography out of context (out of the studio) and stage it in an unlikely area (an unsightly area) contrasting beauty and decay as one in the same.
Henryton was absolutely amazing and much bigger than I had expected. The facility opened in the 1920s and was a hospital for african american tuberculosis patients and later mentally retarded children. It closed in 1985 and has been abandoned ever since. It truly was an amazing sight to see - all the graffiti, rust, and decay was quite beautiful in a sad way. There are multiple buildings and literally hundreds of rooms to explore. I think we spent about four hours there and barely covered much ground at all. It actually became very overwhelming for me because I had trouble deciding on a location since there so many to choose from and each location was just as interesting as the other! I accidently became more absorbed in looking for the perfect location than actually shooting, but what is one to do when scouting the area beforehand is out of the question.
I ended up doing three separate shoots. Two were from the main building in the same room, only from two different angles. The other was from an on-campus house near the theatre.
Overall I feel that my pictures turned out well and I accomplished what I had set out to do. I only wish that I had more time to work with because now that I look back on it, there were so many more ideas I could have done and other areas I wish I had been able to explore. I also wish I could have been more decisive, that way I wouldn't have been so caught up with looking as I was shooting. Oh, well.
No worries, though. I will be back, perhaps without a model next time. Being at Henryton gave me a sense of adventure and both trained and challenged my eyes to pay great attention to detail and to mentally compose my images before they happen. I think I will aim to do a semester-long urban decay exploration project next-spring. I can't wait.
The above images were lit with a Canon 430EX II off-camera flash (either bare bulb or reflected into a 60'' umbrella).
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