Derelict Heterotopias
8 August 2013
I discovered the Abandoned Britain web site today which presents Joe Collier’s photographs of derelict buildings and industrial sites. The images of abandoned asylums and hospitals provide an interesting perspective on these heterotopias: –‘ real utopias’ as Foucault labelled them, now becoming unreal in some respects, without a specific function or any fixed boundaries. The photographs show the grandeur of some of the designs but also expose the previously ‘hidden’ brutal fabric and texture of these institutions. They link well with the work of the French photographer Vincent J Stoker (see previous posts).






The last poignant image from Cane Hill Asylum.
Another site with images outside Britain, Forbidden Places, is also worth a visit if you are interested in the haunting exposed remnants of these modern heterotopias, including prisons and workhouses, as well as asylums.
Peter