Epilogue

A Tarnished Age
December 2004

 

Many of the scenes on these pages no longer exist in the form pictured here. Children's Crossing was photographed at an institution that has since been entirely demolished. The Village of the Feeble-Minded has been partially destroyed and rebuilt into a community center. Other places, more recently, have been vandalized beyond recognition. The golden age of asylums is over, but I am glad to have been able to witness its flourishes and will be processing my experiences for many years to come.

I am particularly grateful to have discovered the Hospital of Seven Teeth when it was still fresh, when opening a door to the tunnels felt like uncovering a vault. It has been nearly five years since the events recorded here took place. The story of Ann Davee still resonates; with further research, including notes about her dental visits in a nurses' log, it has become only more poignant and surreal. It has evolved into the bass note in a personal asylum book that has been my companion project for some time.

Years after I last visited it, this hospital still stands. My discovery of the bird in the drawer was a cornerstone experience, in that it led to an ongoing collaboration with the person who placed it there, after he had finished shooting the extraordinary "Met State". The film is a prime example of how an asylum can be made to come to life, carrying its history draped over one arm as it bares itself so beautifully to its own demise. And so we move along, shifting the decrepitude from the hospital walls to our internal landscapes. How fortunate we are that decay itself can be made to linger in such spectacular ways, where it can continue to tarnish and inform us in our course towards an end.

 

J.S.
Dark Passage

 

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