Powerful photographs of the grand exteriors and crumbling interiors of America's abandoned state mental hospitals.
Payne’s photographs have been praised by THE NEW YORKER for their “eerie beauty” and by THE NEW YORK TIMES, which said, “What distinguishes Mr. Payne’s work is not only his knowing documentation of architectural features but his eye for the telling human detail.”
Essay : "Payne is a visual poet as well as an architect by training, and he has spent years finding and photographing these buildings—often the pride of their local communities and a powerful symbol of humane caring for those less fortunate. His photographs are beautiful images in their own right, and they also pay tribute to a sort of public architecture that no longer exists. They focus both on the monumental and the mundane, the grand facades and the peeling paint."
—Oliver Sacks, Asylum
