Photo Essay 01: The Abandoned Insane Asylum

+ The Abandoned 50s Diner

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Medfield State Hospital —where they filmed Shutter Island!

Happy Halloween! 🎃 👻

If you caught last week’s Coffee Grinds and my recent note, you know that I’ve been wanting to bring you more content while struggling to find inspiration and balance writing life with work life. Part of that is down to just having a crazy work schedule in the Fall, line editing my book, and finding the balance between Substack writing and book editing. I’m constantly asking myself which to devote time to.

But part of it is also finding inspiration. I understand and respect the power of sitting down and Doing the Work with long-form pieces like a novel and that you must put in the hours even when you don’t feel like it. But that just doesn’t work for me with Substack. I have to be hit with inspiration or the whole thing feels forced.

So, in addition to my weekly Coffee Grinds posts, I’m bringing you a new weekly piece: Photo Essays. As I get more obsessed with this new hobby of mine, I want a place to share these photos that isn’t just my IG or my Facebook, because, really there are only so many photos of objects or decaying buildings you can ask your friends to hit like on. And to be honest, they mostly already aren’t. So, lucky you!

Plus, it’ll be fun to look back and see my progress as I improve my shooting, learn to be less afraid of experimenting, and understand Lightroom.

This week, we’re kicking things off with two shoots: The Abandoned Insane Asylum and The Abandoned Diner. The latter was my very first shoot, a 50s diner we stumbled onto en route to a beach day, and the former being where they filmed Shutter Island. Spooky!

The Abandoned Insane Asylum

When we first arrived we came across a set of former staff residences. Overgrown and in need of some TLC, they set the tone for the rest of the afternoon. I was like a kid in a candy store—if that candy was asbestos and promises of paranormal activity.

Continuing on we found the rest of the staff buildings. While I found a map of what the patient buildings were used for, these were less clear. I assume they were used to house staff.

And then we came across the patient buildings

Some of my favorites from the day. Clicking should allow you to view each as a standalone.

You know lucky number 13 had to be in there somewhere.

The Sanatorium

You know lucky number 13 had to be in there somewhere.

We spent three hours roaming the Medfield State Hospital grounds and it honestly didn’t feel like enough time. But you know, I bet the brick would look just gorgeous against the white of a winter snow….

One of my favorites from the day

The Abandoned Diner

Having served its last brunch at the start of the pandemic, this diner was only a few years closed, and still in pretty good shape. It was as if it was just waiting for us to pop in and order a nice eggs benny and some home fries. They even still had the menus up!

Now if you know me, you know I’m a sucker for these kind of places. My mom and I used to go to breakfast every single day of my early high school years at a place not too dissimilar to this. Small, homey, and full of waitresses who slung words like “hun” and “sweetie” with alarming regularity. Finding this place felt like coming home, and it was the perfect first shoot with my new camera.

This also marked my husband’s first time in an abandoned building—I dare say he liked it much more than he thought he would!

Thanks for checking out the very first photo essay! If you have any tips/tricks when it comes to photography, Lightroom, or anything else related to this beginner photographer, let me know! Thanks for reading :)

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