Stairways are often the least exciting areas of an abandoned building. They’re dark, with thick structural walls with narrow windows—if there are any windows at all. They are predictable: 36 to 44 inches is the standard width, with 12 to 15 steps the norm. There’s almost never a reason to photograph them. Out of hundreds of abandoned buildings I’ve entered, I can count on one hand the times I bothered to photograph the stairs.

Then I entered the Navy Yard hospital. It was an unforgiving hot summer morning. I ventured here solo so I could spend a significant amount of time inside unhurried by any fellow explorers. Moving room to room, floor to floor, it became apparently just how similar all the rooms were—and how dark as well. All of the buildings windows had been boarded up.

I found myself surprised to be drawn to the two sets of stairs, where sunlight filtered in from the broken skylights above. These wide stairs felt ornate, yet crumbling. Scaffolds held up many landings, with their dark blue paint adding a 10% highlight to the 60/30 of white walls and gray shadows. The skylights were not just letting in the sun. They were slowly leaking rain water, weakening the floors and making them perhaps the most hazardous areas of the structure. The very thing giving these stairs life was also killing them—and without them, killing access to all of the upper floors of the building.

All photos in this series were shot on expired Kodak vision 3 500t 35mm film, typically used as a movie film and requiring special ECN-2 processing. Given the humble working nature of the subject.

This is a set of six prints on a standard 8×10 matte finish. They come either framed or unframed. Complete with Mini-Zine and Certificate of Authenticity.

Prints

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