Litchfield County-based photographer Avery Danziger compares his excursions into the abandoned Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center in Wingdale to the trancelike experience of scuba diving. “I love the stillness and quiet of the place,” says Danziger. “All I can hear is my breath through the respirator and hazmat suit I have to wear.” Closed in 1994, the Wingdale Center is filled with black mold and asbestos; lead paint covers the walls and floors. Danziger was the last photographer authorized to enter the site, and his photographs document the center’s toxic beauty, reveling in the natural chaos stemming from the breakdown of the manmade environment.
“Avery Danziger: The Judicious Palette of Time” will be exhibited through June 16 at the Tremaine Gallery at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut.
This article appears in June 2013.
