Digital Ink'd

A Halloween inspired work created using the Artocarpus Altilis leaf or otherwise known as the breadfruit leaf. An old leaf found under an in-season breadfruit tree and used as the basis of my blood art. Finding inspiration in the lush fields of the Caribbean island of Barbados.

Inspired by the recent work of Can Tuncer's Lava landscapes. It's not a 7-year body of work experience as Tunçer's but nonetheless, I gave it my four years of landscape expertise I could execute with what I have available.

You can check more of his incredible work below. Inspired beyond belief.

Can Tunçer 500px

Can Tunçer Flickr

Added a new lens to the camera bag recently and so far its been a learning curve in how best to capture unique perspectives in a world of billions of images. Its been a trying experience so far in the field wielding the Canon 100mm macro lens. It definitely takes a different approach than my Sigma wide angle lens. The results haven't been extraordinary but I wanted to try something new from another perspective. I have been shooting the same subject matter for quite some time and wanted to try something new and different. I've always been curious and quite envious of the work of various macro photographers in some of the photography blogs I read. Although some of those macro photos take quite the elaborate setup to achieve the stunning results.

So far I have a lot to learn and small subjects to "model".

The children's ward is the most popular section of Rockland that everyone heads straight to this building without fail. It does have its appeal with other explorers. The brightly colored toys, destroyed murals and daycare equipment all scattered around the building. Here you can find the modest auditorium where I assume shows for the kids or movies were played. I won't dig deeper into the history since it is well written about by so many historians and urban explorers it would be ad nauseam to write about it again. A great write-up can be found by Will Ellis in his series on Rockland Hospital: Abandoned NYC.

My second visit to the institution I had already known beforehand that someone had torched certain sections of the children's ward. I saw all the fire damage in person to my dismay. I would never understand why someone would either torch a place for no reason at all or play around with fire inside old buildings to create that "shot". However, nefarious the reason I came back with my good friend A.

I found my way inside the famous bowling alley so many others have come to see. I also gained access to the main auditorium which was completely spotless from any graffiti or mounds of garbage. On the other hand, things became a lot worst inside the small auditorium inside the children's ward if you look back at my visit in 2016. It was inside here that we met other explorers taking in the ward. My friend A collaborated expeditiously into a portrait session and we were on our way less we get caught with the newcomers. Local police are known to patrol the campus frequently.

…

This once 600-acre mental asylum once housed 11,000 patients within its lush acreage and winding paths. A psychiatric hospital that once considered lobotomies and electroshock therapy as a first-rate treatment for the mentally ill. Now, part of the vast semi-abandoned buildings has found the wrecking ball for a different type of electroshock therapy. About 60 acres of land will become a banking data center built by the financial Wall Street juggernaut, JPMorgan Chase. A 150,000 sq ft data center will sit on the grounds where patients actually made the hospitals furniture and ran some of its facilities such as the power plant, farm and shops. As of now that facility has been built paved by the way of $40 million dollars in demolition and cleanup costs.

I ventured inside the many buildings unused since the hospital began cutting back during the 1970s. As of now, the Rockland Psychiatric Center still treat patients with maniacal depression and severe cases of schizophrenia. On many visi…