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Abandoned Asylums: An unrestricted journey into America's forgotten hospitals

Abandoned Asylums takes you on an unrestricted visual journey inside America's abandoned state hospitals, asylums, and psychiatric facilities, the institutions where countless stories and personal dramas played out behind locked doors and out of public sight.

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Dilapidated hospital corridor with peeling turquoise and grey paint on walls, old wheelchairs, and natural light streaming through a distant window

The images captured by photographer Matt Van der Velde are powerful, haunting and emotive. A sad and tragic reality that these once glorious historical institutions now sit vacant and forgotten as their futures are uncertain and threatened with the wrecking ball.

Explore a private mental hospital that treated Marilyn Monroe and other celebrities seeking safe haven. Or look inside the seclusion cells at an asylum that once incarcerated the now-infamous Charles Manson. Or see the autopsy theatre at a Government Hospital for the Insane that was the scene for some of America's very first lobotomy procedures.

Now available in a book, published by Jonglez Publishing, it includes a forward by renowned expert Carla Yanni examining their evolution and subsequent fall from grace, and accompanying writings by Matt Van der Velde detailing their respective histories. Abandoned Asylums will shine some light on the glorious, and sometimes infamous institutions that have for so long been shrouded in darkness.

Via direct submission | All images courtesy of Matt Van der Velde

Dilapidated hospital kitchen with peeling green paint, industrial equipment and overhead surgical lights in an abandoned American psychiatric facility
Decaying hospital beds with stained mattresses line a crumbling brick corridor with barred windows in an abandoned psychiatric facility
Decaying abandoned asylum room with peeling green and yellow walls, black doors, tall windows with yellow light filtering through, and an upright piano against the wall
Long institutional corridor with wooden doors lining both sides, peeling turquoise and white walls, and industrial ceiling fixtures in an abandoned psychiatric hospital
Deteriorating metal stairwell viewed from above, descending through multiple levels of an abandoned psychiatric facility with rusted railings and crumbling walls
Narrow brick courtyard with weathered wooden doors, a barred window and climbing vines in an abandoned asylum building
Deteriorating hospital room with two metal beds, peeling walls, broken windows and medical equipment scattered across the floor in an abandoned asylum
A derelict room with weathered brick walls and exposed ceiling beams, furnished with a single white chair facing two large multi-paned windows overgrown with dense green foliage
Abandoned library with crumbling walls and scattered books covering the floor, lit by gridded windows in a deteriorating psychiatric hospital
Deteriorating hospital corridor with dark red doors on either side, peeling plaster walls and water-damaged ceiling stretching into shadow
Long symmetrical corridor with repeating archways, peeling paint on walls and a burgundy carpet running down the centre of an abandoned asylum
Looking up inside an abandoned spiral staircase with peeling green and white paint, metal railings and steps ascending towards a circular opening at the top
Deteriorating brick stairwell with metal railings leading upwards towards a window with green frame, viewed from above in an abandoned building
Weathered stainless steel medical or mortuary cabinets with open doors revealing empty compartments inside an abandoned hospital facility
Dilapidated interior of an abandoned psychiatric facility with deteriorating turquoise medical equipment, exposed brick walls, and scattered debris on the floor
Rusted metal bed frame with mattress in a dilapidated hospital room with peeling yellow walls and large windows, from Matt Van der Velde's Abandoned Asylums series
Silhouetted figure standing in a flooded abandoned corridor with decaying walls and bright doorway ahead, reflected in standing water
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