Photographing the abandoned and apparently haunted penitentiary at night was creepy, interesting, exciting, and sometimes challenging. The penitentiary has imposing Gothic stone architecture adorned with turrets and like a castle, and has an extremely violent history, with almost a thousand deaths within these stone walls. Photos were created with only a handheld flashlight in total or near total darkness. Tim Little and Mike Cooper also photographed here the same evening. The former West Virginia State Penitentiary, a National Historic Places Registered facility, operated by the Moundsville Economic Development Council in Moundsville, West Virginia, was built in 1866, just three years after West Virginia seceded from Virginia, and closed in 1995.
Night photo at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, PA, an old, sprawling thick-walled prison built with numerous arms extending from a central hub like the spokes of a wheel. Numerous criminals, including Al Capone, were imprisoned here. ESP closed its doors in 1970, and was abandoned for the next 20 years, eventually overcome by a dense jungle of damp trees and vines outside...and sometimes inside. Fueled by Philly cheesesteaks, my friends Tim, Mike, and I spent much of the evening photographing the grounds. This is a selfie taken in Cellblock 7.
Late night lubrication at the Chevron station during a very hot summer night. I lit the garage and car from several different angles with a handheld ProtoMachines light painting device during the exposure. This was photographed during a 10-day 2559-mile night photography road trip with Mike Cooper, Tim Little, and George Loo. Nevada.
