Photographers relevant to Hospital - Isolation - Establishing Image

Leah and Kristin Jent are sisters that specialise in baby, child and family photography.

I chose this image because I feel that it is very powerful. The isolation is not only shown by the woman being by herself but also by the equipment that she has around her head. This makes it very clear that she is different from others and therefore isolated in this hospital room.

The Jent's decided to convert this image into black and white. I feel that the contrast is very strong and makes the image more interesting whether or not this is the reason for them doing it. Also, when I was shooting in the hospital, I found that the colours were very dull making it less powerful and more 'boring'.

The only aspect of the image I do not like so much is the left hand side of the frame. I feel like there is too much empty space that doesn't tell us any more infomation which is important for an establishing image. Having said this, the photographers may have done this to emphasise the isolation.

Kevin Lamb is a photographer who took a series of photos in a psychiatric hospital. This shows great isolation because the people within the hospital are carefully isolated from others and the normal world.

I feel that this image shows real isolation and in a negative way. The patient is in a room that looks very similar to a prison cell, with no personal items or any comforting items. The idea of a prison is to isolate people from the outside world. It feels as though these people are possibly unfairly isolated in the same way. The difference is that there is nothing they can or could have done about it due to their mental health.

Lamb has shot the image of the back of the woman. This makes it more mysterious and shows isolation further. This is because it feels as though the woman can't even face society.

Converting the photograph to black and white also makes it feel colder and emphasises the loneliness of the woman.



Fergus Falls State Hospital, or the third Asylum. This hospital was built in 1888 and abandoned in 2008. It was built to house all those whose psychological conditions excluded them from interacting with the general population. This is a perfect example of isolation. A lot of these people were said to be able to lead almost 'normal' lives if they hadn't been taken to the Hospital.
On July 29th, 1880 the first two men were sentenced to the asylum, joined the next day by eighty transfers from St. Peters. St. Peters was one of the current asylums in the area that was massively over populated.

The picture I have chosen shows a ward in the hospital. Although it is full of patients, I still feel that it shows a strong sign of isolated. The patients do not appear to be talking to one another or interacting with anyone at all. Much like the image before, there is a sense of inprisionment. The photographer has shot the image so that it portrays the too men standing up in a authoratitive way. This is an image of the exact same room from the same angle in 2008 after it had been abandoned. From this we can see that the environment was clearly designed to isolate people that were different and not to make them comfortable or help them live a normal life. I think it is important to show both of these images to show this because it is not just the pateints that show the isolation.