Marlene Wynn - Weekly Artist Post #2

Byberry Insane Asylum – A House of Horrors in 1940’s Philadelphia

1. Artist Technical Choices
1.  As a note...I am honestly unsure of the artist's name responsible for these photos.  I THINK it's Dolores Zollo, but I am not sure.
2. These pictures are of the Byberry Insane Asylum in Philadelphia back in the 1940's.  It appears to me that no special treatment was done to the film:  What you see was what was there.  It helped to show how very horrible the conditions really were.  There doesn't seem to be a "main focus point" like a flower or a person.  Instead, the entire frame is the focal point, making everything within it important.
2.  Artist Conceptual / Thematic Intents
1. The intent of the photographer is very clear:  show as much horror and suffering as possible.  Use the starkness of the black and white photos to show the viewer the inhumane treatment of not only the mentally insane, but the staff that worked there.
3. My Response to Stanley's Intents
1. Though it's difficult to say which photo is the truly the strongest, the one that hits me the most is the last one of the boys sitting dejectedly naked in a bare room.  Why are they naked?  Why are they there?  What room are they in?  This photo is so strange and so gut-wrenching that it forces you to wonder about the circumstances.  The threadbare beds in the middle photo...my God.  So many, so tightly squeezed together that you can smell the sour, sweaty stench of the people laying next to you.  You can feel the hot, sticky brush of air against your skin as they turn over in the night.  You can hear the discordant cacophony of sonorous snores rattling off the walls.  And God forbid you had to go to the bathroom.  How would you ever manage to maneuver through the maze of metal bed frames without taking off a toe or two?