TITLE: Isolation

We each have an interior world that dictates how we act in the exterior world. No two peoples interior world is the same, but we are encouraged to conform our view of the exterior world to the 'norm'. Those who won't, or can't conform the the 'norm' have a difficult time navigating the exterior world. As society has become increasingly complex, those who see the world differently have had an increasingly difficult time conforming, and society has struggled to understand.

The answer seemed to be to remove them from society at large and isolate them in a controlled environment, in mental hospitals. These 'hospitals' were little more than warehouses, with abuse common. In the mid-seventies, with the science of psychology barely 100 yrs. old, mental hospitals had changed little. These images are from that time.

I have tried to show the isolation the 'mentally ill' experienced; isolated from society at large in mental institutions, and isolated from their limited exterior world by their 'mental illness', and the attempts to treat it.

Close to fifty years on, the science of psychology has matured significantly and, in the main, conditions such as these no longer exist, at least in highly developed nations. I've chosen not to identify the facility where these images were taken as it would serve little purpose now beyond shaming. I never knew the patients names other than the occasional first name; I trust that their isolation is now over.

AUTHOR: David Fonda (United States)

David Fonda is an award winning Fine Art photographer based in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. His images revel in the inter-play of light and structure, line and shape, tint and texture, making evident both his love of photography and of architecture.

David earned his Bachelors of Fine Arts in Photography from Ohio University. He worked as a photo-journalist at two suburban Philadelphia daily newspapers, including the award winning Today’s Post. He went on to work as a corporate photographer for ARMCO, Inc., then a Fortune 50 industrial corporation, and CoreStates Financial, a regional bank. David has operated an independent photographic studio for more than 25 years.

David has offices in a renovated turn-of-the-century pencil factory in the Wayne Junction neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.