Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

The Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, or TALA, was a mental hospital in West Virginia that closed its doors in the mid-1990s after serving for over 100 years. The hospital was designed for 250 but eventually held 2500.

I photographed the building first in 2011 and again in 2019. My goal was to evoke a sense of loneliness and abandonment, which I felt as I visited. I could only imagine the sadness and desperation of the patients who were left here, excluded from society and their families.