Nursing Home (Roaming the Hallways)

Captures the nature of an institutional existence. Her facelessness makes her any nursing home resident. Tonal qualities and light are exceptional.

I'm struck by the repeating pattern of the lights, the doorways, and the receptacles. Nice (sad) capture.

 

Rick

I spent a great deal of time in this nursing home as a young adult watching my

grandparents health deteriorate and too quickly loosing them. I began

taking these photos after getting to know many of the wonderful people who lived

here. I have posted a few of the images to this site. This image has always been very

haunting to me and immediately emotionally places me back in this nursing home

with just the slightest glance at it...

I can sympathize with the old lady making her way

slowly through the seemingly endless hallway... nice work.

So I've been rating photos tonight and your nursing home photo was self-explanatory - without the caption. Excellent expression of mood and (to me) loneliness. Brilliant.

I find this image uncomfortable. That is not to say that it is bad though. Indeed that reaction shows its power.

 

This is a very sterile environment. The walls are white, but there is no life on them. They do not show paintings or any other pictures. The door patterns on the left wall repeat. No style or attempt at form. They are there because they are there. The floor is very polished and clean. But yet again, it is very umremarkable in visual appeal.

 

To break up this pattern the hall has various institutional impliments. There is a trash can on wheels. This is a design not for the comfort of the residents, but for the ease of the employees. The same for the various food carts in the hall. This is a structure designed for the efficency of the employees, not the comfort of the residents.

 

Finally, and most stirring, is the lone resident we see. She is alone in this efficent institution. No one to comfort her, help her or brighten her day. Her physical needs are tended to in an efficient way, but her emotional needs are sacrificed.

 

Her head is bowed down. Why? I feel that she has surrendered her dignity to this institution. Caring for her physical needs has become so paramount that her dignity is neglected. Does she not want to be recognized by the camera in such a place during her twilight years? Is she so alone in this place that she just does not bother to look for another human anymore?