552 - East State Penitentiary
Today I had an encounter that I can’t quite explain. Allow me to explain.
It all started on a smug morning in downtown Philadelphia. Complete with rain, gloomy clouds, a hint of cheesesteak in the air. I’d finally made it to the promised land.
And it’d been quite the journey. 28 hours of driving, 2,000+ miles, and multiple bags of Goldfish. Upon arrival, my first instinct led me to immediately pass out. And that I did- for about 12 hours straight.
The next morning I woke up feeling like a completely different person, in a completely different country. Once the shock of arrival finally did wear off, I decided I should probably find a place to start shooting.
I did a little research here and there and stumbled upon a lil’ place called East State Penitentiary.
Now, I’m not normally a “jail” kinda guy. Not in the context of doing illegal stuff per say (I’ve done plenty,) but more in the context of simply not finding jail interesting. Plenty of dude’s are happy to spend a Friday night watching “The World’s Most Dangerous Prisons.” Or to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon fantasizing about joining a gang and breaking out if they were incarcerated.
To me, it’s all hokey-pokey. Who cares. But there was something about this place that caught my eye…
It resembled many of the abandoned buildings I’ve explored over the years, but without the danger. In many of these places, you could fall through floors, be exposed to dangerous chemicals, run into bad people, or end up trapped.
This place had guard rails, an audio tour, rangers, and hot coffee. East State Penitentiary was essentially a legal, urban ex museum. Sold.
I arrived (un)bright and early, ready to explore its rainy, dilapidated walls. Since it was a Monday morning, the place was completely empty. Here’s a photo of the entrance way:
“East Vortex”
Taken with Sony a7rIV + Sony 12-24mm f/4 G
[ISO 2500 ~ 12mm ~ f/9 ~ 1/60s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Creepy, eh? The whole place essentially consists of several long hallways, all which meet in the middle to form a sort of “star” shape, if you were to look from above. Each hallway consists of dozens of cells that each have their own unique interior design.
And when I say interior design, I mean a special blend of rotting walls, broken furniture, and psychological horror. Overall, there were hundreds of these cells. And I looked in almost every single one.
Here were three of my favorites:
“The Chair”
Taken with Sony a7rIV + Sony 12-24mm f/4 G
[ISO 2500 ~ 12mm ~ f/7.1 ~ 1/50s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
“Endless Work”
Taken with Sony a7rIV + Sony 12-24mm f/4 G
[ISO 2500 ~ 12mm ~ f/8 ~ 1/30s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
“Mental Flip”
Taken with Sony a7rIV + Sony 12-24mm f/4 G
[ISO 2500 ~ 19mm ~ f/9 ~ 1/80s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
That last one was an artist rendition. They purposely put mirrors in the cell to simulate the sheer terror an inmate would feel once they officially lost their mind.
Needless to say, the place was dark. The more I read into its background, the more I felt a deep pit forming in my stomach. Over 1,400 people had died in the prison, almost half of them from disease.
And since the place was active in the early 1900s, plenty of strange experiments occurred with prisoners to “save” them. Hence the chair in the first photo, and this surgery light right here:
“Rotten Interior”
Taken with Sony a7rIV + Sony 12-24mm f/4 G
[ISO 2500 ~ 12mm ~ f/8 ~ 1/160s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
And fun fact, Al Capone had surgery in this exact room at one point in his life.
As the creepiness slowly ramped up in my head, I figured I mind as well go all in. I found a ranger lurking around the corner, and asked for the most haunted part of the prison. Surely, this place had to have ghosts. I’d bet my life on it.
And sure enough, I was directed to Cell Block 14. A grim, locked hallway where some of the most mentally unstable prisoners lurked. I stuck my camera through the grate and got this photo:
…and what in God’s name is that in the bottom? I have absolutely no idea. I’ve never had that happen before, and I have a library of almost 100,000 photos.
Is it purely a coincidence? Is it some type of paranormal interference?
I have no clue. And honestly, I’d rather not think about it because I’m typing this in a dark New England forest without service.
So let’s slowly, and calmly, move along.
For my next photo, I wanted to figure out a way to capture the texture of the place.
So, I applied my “cave photography” technique to the prison walls. AKA, look for shapes you recognize, and create an image out of them. And since my mind was latched into all the death here, I landed on this:
“The Skull”
Taken with Sony a7rIV + Sony 12-24mm f/4 G
[ISO 2500 ~ 12mm ~ f/9 ~ 1/100s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
A good ole’ skull. Manifesting itself before my eyes.
Imagine if my camera had gotten possessed by that interference earlier… And now I was cursed to see ghosts in every photo.
Honestly, it’d be kind of nice because the composition work would always be done for me already. I tested out my theory with one more shot:
“Light/Dark"
Taken with Sony a7rIV + Sony 12-24mm f/4 G
[ISO 2500 ~ 12mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/200s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
God, I love those windows. I don’t see a ghost in this photo, though. Well… actually…
You know what? I need to eat something. I’ve been editing these photos for far too long. Can’t even remember the last time I had a shoot with this many shots.
I’m gonna go get some steak. BYE.
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
Want to see my progress? Check out the Adventure Map.
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