Come One, Come All...

The city of Boonton NJ was far from the first location in the area to get a railroad.
It's station was finally built in 1867, a good 25 years after most nearby towns.
Titled the "Boonton Branch of the Morris & Essex RR",
it was just under five miles long and dead-ended at the town of Boonton...

An entry from a Morristown newspaper, August 29th, 1867:
"The branch road from Denville to Boonton, four and three quarter's mile long,
and as crooked as a rams horn, is now in running order."

Now, almost 150 years later, the station sits abandoned.
It has been replaced by a newer, more modern one not too far down the tracks.

*So, new year new equipment...
Aside from my camera upgrade, we now shoot video in HD.
Our new video camera shoots in 1080p.
(Though you can stream it off YouTube in lower-resolution if needed, some computers lag at 1080)
Aside from a vast increase in image clarity, we noticed the colours came out much better too.
This now makes the video a much stronger companion piece to the images...






( H To The Dizzle... )

The Walker Hotel (Alias) opened it's doors in 1929.
Construction costs at the time ran about $250,000
for the five-story, 150 room structure.

It gained in popularity due primarily to it's therapeutic sulfur baths.



The hotel operated until it eventually went under in 2004.

There is hope for the Walker however...
Recently a Korean-American investment group based out of NYC
purchased the hotel with plans to renovate and reopen it.
The proposed plan will put about $12 million into the hotel and bath house.

This plan was issued in April 2007.
These photos and video were taken in early fall 2009...
From the current look of things, it seems that they are not too eager to begin work...






( This way to the best wallpaper you'll ever see... )

Had to pass on a video project in Hoboken today on account of old-man-winter and his ice-rain-snow showers.
Forecast says 1/5-inch of ice with 4-5 inches of snow on top... bah!
Well, because of this I am sitting home, and because of that I am making this post about random topics.

First off, this is awesome:



If I ever meet the artist behind it, I will give him/her a high-five.

In other news... Owl City. I admit that I am out-of-touch with what's "hip" or "cool"... or whatever kids these days call it.
But seriously... why is Owl City popular? Have these kids never heard of The Postal Service.
Although I am not a real fan of The Postal Service (I like a few songs...), credit should be given where it is due.
Simply put, Owl City is a dumbed-down copy of The Postal Service.

The Postal Service (2003):



Owl City (2009):



As an artist, this kind of stuff bugs me to my core.


Hmmm... what else to talk about.
Oh! Saw a couple very awesome films recently (Thank you NetFlix, I would elope you if you weren't such a harlot)




That's all for now I guess...
Sorry about all the videos.

~Rusty

The idea of these images came from a Christmas present I recently received.
It was an old case containing a "miner's rescue kit"
This kit included the two (pictured) masks...

I have included my concept sketch after the images...






( Ghosts are a metaphor... )

This is a character from my comic book.
A book that I have perpetually been saying I'll finish for the past three years
(more really)...

Ah well, some day perhaps...

Anyway, here it is a new year,
perhaps this will make me pick things back up.

Wishing everyone a happy new decade,
while it still has that new-decade smell...






~Rusty

Highlights of locations that we (Christina and I)
have been able to photograph, and film, throughout the year of 2009.
We feel quite blessed to have done so much having only started out 9 months ago...

We hope that, with any luck, our work here may stir up some interest (and respect)
for these, and other, forgotten places.

Please treat them as you would any historical artifact...







"History is a guide to navigation in perilous times.
History is who we are and why we are the way we are."
~David C. McCullough

"I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided,
and that is the lamp of experience.
I know no way of judging of the future but by the past."
~Edward Gibbon

"We are made wise not by the recollection of our past,
but by the responsibility for our future."
~George Bernard Shaw

"We can learn from history how past generations thought
and acted, how they responded to the demands of their time
and how they solved their problems. We can learn by analogy,
not by example, for our circumstances will always be different than theirs were.
The main thing history can teach us is that human actions have consequences
and that certain choices, once made, cannot be undone.
They foreclose the possibility of making other choices
and thus they determine future events."
~Gerda Lerner

"Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times."
~Gustave Flaubert

"History is a race between education and catastrophe."
~H. G. Wells

"History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived,
but if faced with courage, need not be lived again."
~Maya Angelou

The Children's School of Light and Shadow. (Alias)

Erected in the 1930, not much information exists online about it's history.
What little information I did find is taken from PDF files of old books and issues of "Psychiatric Quarterly".



It seems that it was built with the intention of being a school for disabled children, both mental and physical.
The presence of hydrotherapy tubs reinforces this information.
Further research disclosed that a Dr. Harry C. Storrs was appointed as superintendent of the school on July 1, 1930.
This is interesting because Dr. Storrs had been the first assistant physician
at Letchworth Village since December 1919...

Present day the school campus lays abandoned in a field.
At least half of the structures are gutted completely, any items of value having been scrapped.
This includes all the steel doors and windows...
In fact we had to avoid the scrappers while filming, and though we kept a good distance away from them,
we could hear their machinery in the background our entire time there.





These skeleton structures have a surreal look and feel to them, half building and half open-air.
The low winter sun cast long shadows across the decaying floors, now left open to the elements.
Leaves blow through hallways that, until recently, were sealed with stale air and the smell of rot.

This is the school's final stage, it's last form before disappearing forever.
I hope my photos and our video serve as a fitting eulogy...






( End of days... )

So, I just watched Star Trek (2009) last night,
I recommend it to anyone interested in Star Trek, or in Sci-Fi in general.
It's refreshing to see such an long-running series change it's act up like this.

Anyway, made a doodle.
Liked it so quickly coloured it via PhotoShop.
Nothing special really, just sharing...

The history of the Grandview is much broader than just a tale of a single resort.
This plot of land represents the times of an entire region...
Within these walls you witness the rise, and fall, of the Borscht Belt.

The Borscht Belt is (was) a band of hotels, resorts, spas, and places of that nature,
that spread across the Catskills Mountain area of New York state.
At one time vacationing in the Catskills was a very popular thing to do.
It was at it's most popular from the late 1940's, up until the 70's.
A number of factors contributed to the eventual demise of the Borscht Belt,
not the least of which was affordable air-travel.
A family could now go to Florida for little more than the trip to up-state NY...
The entire Borscht Belt region now lays in ruin.
Hundreds of miles of mountain land, dotted with abandoned resorts.



Though the Grandview may stand for an era of American popular culture,
this is not to say that it was just a number in the list of Catskill resorts.
Of all the resorts that stretched the Borscht belt, the Grandview was the crown-jewel.
In fact, the "Kellerman's Mountain Resort" from the 1980's film "Dirty Dancing"
was modeled after the Grandview.
It was so popular during it's time that an airstrip was constructed on the grounds
so that vacationers could fly directly to the resort.
An airstrip that now has 20+ years of growth covering it...



The Grandview had very humble beginnings,
as a single house in the rural mountains of New York state.
A family of three decided to rent out the extra rooms of their home to vacationers from New York City.
The husband ran the facility, the wife cooked and cleaned, and the daughter was hostess.
In 1919 they sold the original house to purchase a larger one on 100 acres.
From that point on the Grandview steadily grew in size and popularity.
In 1952 it made history as the first ski slope in the world to use artificial snow.
By 1972 the resort had grown to 35 building on some 1,200 acres of land,
and was serving 150,000 guests annually.











Like anything that burns so brightly, the Grandview eventually burnt itself out.
By the late 1970's the younger market was no longer interested in vacationing in the Catskills.
Especially when they could take a jet anywhere in the country for nearly the same cost.
To regain Catskill popularity, a bill was put into motion to legalize gambling in the region.
In preparation for this influx of vacationers looking for an alternative to Atlantic City,
the Grandview went under a massive re-construction.
(I have included some of the re-design illustrations at the end of this entry)
However, the bill was never passed and gambling remains illegal in the Catskills.
That was the last hit the Grandview could take.
Construction halted, and in 1986 the resort shut it's doors for good.







Present day is a strange way to perceive the Grandview.
It lies trapped, between what it once was, and what it was on it's way to becoming.
Un-finished sheet-rock walls give the illusion of a new building, until closer examination anyway...
It's at that point that you smell the rot and decay of many years emanating from it's walls.
A strange visual to behold, the un-finished construction mixing with the decomposition of the old structure.



The location itself is quite massive.
Being the only people (Christina and myself) in such a large place,
it gives you a true sense of "alone".
A place like this was meant for hundreds and hundreds of people, not two lone travelers...
The lobby in-particular gives off a sense of grandness I have not often experienced.
Even in it's un-finished state, you could envision what it would look like completed.



I have no idea what the future holds for the Grandview.
However, there is rumor of a new developer gaining ownership of the property.
It seems their intention is to re-build it (seriously)
The same people recently demolished another Catskills resort, to be rebuilt by 2013.
At this point it's success will directly dictate what will become of the Grandview...
There's no real way to predict what will happen, especially with the economy the way it is.
It's not unusual to see places like this change hands many many times, with no out-come.
If it were to be resurrected though, it would truly be as a phoenix rising from the ashes.

I sit, fingers crossed.





( Now accepting reservations... )

*Double-Posted in Gothic_Babes*

This series of images started as a simple sketch I did one day.
When I was done I looked at the image and something about the characters attracted me.
I mean, I doodle all the time, but for some reason I wanted to flesh this one out...
(I have included the sketch at the end of this entry.
Please excuse the sloppiness! I was not planning on sharing the image publicly)

Anyway,
I sent the sketch off to the very talented alternative clothing designer "MtCoffinz".
After looking it over she messaged me that she could create the dresses I needed.
(With a few alterations)

For makeup I contacted "The Glitterbug"
The style was a little outside her norm, but in a good way.
She did an amazing job on both models...

The location was also key I felt.
I contacted Essex County NJ,
to ask permission to shoot at their abandoned Overbrook Asylum,
(Also known as the Essex County Hospital Center)
It's a beautiful place. Over a hundred years old, and constructed in red brick.
I had shot there in the past, as a location shoot,
and luckily they saw no problem in allowing me to return with models.
Overbrook Asylum has had a lot of publicity as of late.
It's been featured on the travel channel's "Ghost Adventures",
and twice now on Syfy's "Ghost Hunters".
Most recently it was the location of the live Ghost Hunters broadcast this Halloween.

I have a fondness for this place, as I do many other locations that are neglected.
However, Overbrook Asylum's days are numbered.
Demolition has already began on the outer-most structures on the property.
Eventually the entire 90-acre complex will be leveled and made into parkland.
As a way of paying my respects, I felt this series should focus as much on the building
as it does on the characters themselves.

If anyone is curious to see my series of photos on the place, here's my Flickr set:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/photography_by_shangri_la/sets/72157622267022803/

Well, this has become quite a long intro. Sorry about that.
I'll just put the credits, then onto the pics...

Model without cage - "Machine_Sex"
www.modelmayhem.com/473150

Model with cage - "Candora"
www.modelmayhem.com/1260446

Makeup artist - The Glitterbug
www.glitterbugmakeup.blogspot.com/

Clothing designer - MtCoffinz
www.modelmayhem.com/626710

Hair Styling - "Panzer Kitty"
www.PanzerKitty.com







( The End Is Coming... )

A quick set of images here...
To both try out my new camera, and celebrate Halloween/Autumn-in-general





( This is Halloween... )

The Conifer is a rotting monument to a bygone era.
What was once a gorgeous resort is now a decaying husk.
A victim of neglect, nature, and those that falsely call themselves "Urban Explorers"



Please understand that I have no issue with people investigating locations such as these, I do it myself.
However, there's a guideline that needs to be followed:
"Take only pictures, leave only footsteps"
Sadly, this seems beyond most people's comprehension, and The Conifer has suffered dearly for it.
This post serves not only a portrayal of a forgotten place, but also an essay on disrespect.



Walking the grounds, you can grasp what the place must have been like in it's heyday.
The bustle of people checking in and out in the lobby,.
The smell of chlorine floating down the main hall from the indoor pool.
Faintly music playing in the background, coming from the grand dining hall.

Now just silence, and the smell of decay.

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The lobby lies in ruin.
Holes cover the walls, and in some cases, sections of wall are missing altogether.
The furniture is thrown in all directions,
most no longer upright.
A majority of the windows have been smashed,
allowing for a rather surreal situation, wherein grass has rooted over the entirety of the lobby carpet.
Creating a grassy field where once the lobby floor was.



Moving on to the building containing indoor pool,
you still almost expect the echo of splashing as you walk about the room.
It's obvious from the size of it that the pool was once a very popular spot at the resort.
It now sits drained, a giant tiled pit in the center of the room.
Fountains can still be seen around the edging of the pool,
along with the many many pool chairs that now occupy the deep-end...



The theater hall must have been glorious at one time.
The room is massive, with the capacity to fit a very large audience.
The giant curtains still hang, slowly being eaten away by fungus.
Same can be said of the ceiling, which appears to be on the verge of collapse.



Walking the hallways of the wings that contained the bedrooms,
you start to understand just how many people came here.
Like the resort itself, the rooms are, for the most-part, in ruin.
Again, windows are broken out, walls are all but torn down, spray paint and garbage is everywhere.
As you go up a few floors though, things become less devastated.
At one point the rooms even smelt eerily of clean linen. Somehow sealed away over a decade ago...






( What's one more hole in the wall? )

Got a nasty virus a few days back, just now got it (mostly) under control...
Worst part was that it was on my good computer. The one I use for all my photo work.
No idea at all how it got there, I don't download anything on it really.
I have a whole separate computer for downloading, the "Turd-Computer".
It's the slutty computer I use as to no infect my good computer.
See how good that works...

Anyway,
It calls itself "Security Tool" and tries to fake you into downloading more crap
by popping up windows everywhere that look like virus-scanning programs.



Then it blocks you from installing any program to remove it,
it even blocks you from opening the Windows Task Manager.
Soooooo
I had to go into Safe Mode and manually delete the damn thing.
Which was kinda hard because it installs itself into a hidden folder named with 9 random numbers.
I then had to delete any traces of it in my computers registry.
So far it's running ok, I'm still getting pop-up ads when online, but that's it.

Ugh...

On May 18th 1927 a steam shovel made the first of many breaks in the earth.
This was the beginning of construction on the state's new psychiatric facility: The Roseland Sanitarium.



Acting governor of the time was quoted:
"We need a new state hospital like (Roseland) at least every three years,
to keep up with the growth in the number of the committed insane."
"The state hospitals are today overcrowded about 30 percent,
and the census is growing so rapidly that we can't catch up."



The following excerpt is from the September 1935 issue of the Psychiatric Quarterly.

"On January 1, 1910 there were 341 patients aged 10-14 years. By January 1, 1923, this number had grown to 634. The entire population of the United States has also shown increased rates of admissions to institutions for mental disease... the rate of increase has been greater at the younger age levels. Part of the increase in the rate of admission may be due to increased facilities for the treatment of mental disease."

Shortly after this publication Roseland opened it's children's unit.





After this the history gets a bit hazy.
It is known though, that at it's peak, Roseland was one of the largest psychiatric facilities in the world.



The current property is in a strange state. A kind of limbo perhaps...
Dotted across it's campus are many buildings, about half of them abandoned.
The other half however, are operating hospitals and offices.
The view from the main tower must be a melancholy one,
from there you can gaze over the entire estate.
You can see the old buildings, forgotten by all except the animals that now call them home.

Some barely visible, hidden by the trees and lost decades that envelop them.



( Hide & Seek... )

Issue #33 of Weird NJ Magazine is now available.

Contained within, amongst many other interesting articles,
is a large spread about The Overbrook Asylum.
(AKA The Essex County Hospital)

Many of the images in that spread were provided by me.
There is also a short writing that I composed for the occasion.
It's a goodbye of sorts to the asylum,
which is scheduled for demolition in the near-future.

So, if you want to be cool, pick up issue #33.
If you don't have a local carrier, or live out-of-state,
you can purchase the issue via their website:
www.WeirdNJ.com

That being said, here's my post...

*This Might Be A Slight Re-Cap For Some Readers, But There Are New Images*




Erected in 1896,
the Overbrook Asylum was created as a local answer
to the Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital,
for the housing and care of the mentally handicapped.
The facility has over 12 buildings on 90 acres.
Most of which are connected via an underground tunnel system
that runs for miles thought-out the grounds.

As expected,
during it's 110 years of service Overbrook Asylum has had it's share of hardships.


In the winter of 1917 the asylum's boiler broke down,
leaving the inhabitants of the building without heat for a period of twenty days.
During that time span 24 people lost their lives due to the cold.
Some froze to death in their beds.


During the great depression large numbers of homeless found refuge at the asylum,
but dangerous over-crowding and food rations made living conditions very poor.

After World War II there was a large influx of patients suffering from
post-traumatic stress and "shell shock". Overbrook had become exceedingly overcrowded
at this point and staff was hard-pressed to keep up with the needs of so many patients.
Many accounts of neglect, starvation, escapes, and suicides had been reported.


Before the 1950's and 60's mental illness was still not very clearly understood,
because of this many forms of therapy were used on the patients that are now plainly seen as torture.
This facility specialized in Hydrotherapy,
however they also preformed electrotherepy and prefrontal labotomies.
In the end the official number of deaths inside the walls of Overbrook reaches into the 10,000's.
Yes... Ten Thousand.


After the 1960's and the great strides that psychiatric medicine had taken,
the number of patients began to drop dramatically.
Up until 2006 the facility was still operating out of a small wing,
while the rest of the asylum was left forgotten around it.

Still, I believe that even in the most upsetting of locations should be seen and shared.
Be it as art, or as a reminder.

Perhaps even a kind of beauty can be found here.

I Feel I Don't Post Enough "Personal" Junk On Here.
It's Mostly Re-Posts Of Already Existing Entries From Other Places Online.

No More!
Well, It's Still Gonna Have A Bunch Of Re-Posts,
But I Intend To Include More Entries That Are Exclusive To This Journal,
About Things That Are Probably Not Really Interesting To Anyone.

Here's A Good Starting Point;
I Love My Xbox 360.
I May Be In My Mid-20's,
But I Feel That I Will Always Be Playing Video Games.
Here's Another Thing;
People On Xbox Live Really Do Not Like Me...



Just A Sampling Of My In-Box On Xbox Live...






I Mean, For The Most Part It's Probably Warranted.
Still, It's Amusing How Irate People Can Become Over A Video Game...
Seriously. It Seems The Most Angry People In The World Play Xbox Live.
The Next Charlie Manson Is Probably The Kid Who I Was Landing On With A Helicopter In GTA.
It Would Totally Not Be Surpriseing To Me If A Mass-Murder Occurs Because Some Kid's
Mom Un-Plugges His Xbox In The Middle Of A Game.

Funny Thing Is, The More Angry A Person Becomes, The More I Want To Play With Them.
I Literally Have Been In Tears Laughing Over Some People's Pissed-Off Tirades On There.

I Suppose It's An Acquired Taste.

* DOUBLE POSTED IN THE COMMUNITY "GOTHIC_BABES" *

A recent shoot of mine, taken for the latex designer "Die Gruselig Kollektion"
The location is (was) a coal power plant.
The coal dust still coats a good amount of the place,
along with leaking oil and other fluids from the forgotten machines.
So, staying clean was difficult at best.

I literally could shoot the interior of this structure all day.
There's so many pipes, wires, levers... countless details everywhere.
We were there for a portrait shoot though, so that's what I did.

The models in these photos are:
Silver Outfit - Christina (Machine_Sex)
Black Outfit - Chloe Von Creepy





( Hard hat Area )

*Double-Posted In The Gothic_Babes Community*

Wanted to share a few photos from an impromptu shoot I just had.
It was planned out literally the morning I shot it, by the model (Christina).

I believe the choice of red amongst all the green really worked well.
Luckily it didn't come out Christmas-y looking,
considering that colour combo usually does.

So yea, that's it really.
Hope everyone enjoys.

~Rusty





( So Many Mosquitos... )

I had the honor of being part of the Romano Gallery for the past couple weeks.
It is hosted by the Pahaquarry Foundation, with whom I am quite close.
The exhibit showcases various works, ranging from photography and painting,
to things such as free-standing sculpture.

Christina and I decided to attended the gallery opening.
Upon entering the exhibit room I noticed an elderly woman staring at one of my photographs,
it was of the abandoned Overbrook Asylum.

This one here...



She stood there for quite some time.
Her eyes were a little glassy and her hand was slightly away from her chest,
in a kind of way that looked to be half-reaching at the picture on the wall.
I was on the verge of asking her what was on her mind,
when she turned to the host and asked if it was the same Overbrook Asylum that stood in Essex County.

Being that I was standing right next to her, I answered the woman myself.
Turns out that she studied medicine at Overbrook in the 1940's.
Needless to say, I found this terribly interesting, and a conversation began.
She told of how patients would sit on the floor,
sometimes in just a robe, rocking back and forth.
She also told me that as part of her teaching they would have a patient come outsideand address the class.
Then, after the patient was brought back inside, the nurses would discuss the patients perception of things,
his or her illness, and things of that nature...

We talked for at least thirty minutes about the asylum.
At one point I took out my phone and brought up the video that Christina and I made.
I watched her face as she viewed it, and as it played on I saw that she was becoming visibly
saddened by the film. So, I decided to stop it early, for fear of her actually crying.

At the end of our talk she took out a camera and had Christina take a photo
of her and I in front of my picture.






Why do I go to these places?
Why do I bother to photograph what so many have forgotten?
Why do I risk injury and arrest just to take a picture?

To me, the answer was found in that woman's eyes as she viewed my work.
Honestly,
I feel blessed to have actually witnessed my work moving someone like that.