Synopsis "From the Inside: The Forest Haven Asylum"
Located in Laurel Maryland and sandwiched in between an FBI training facility, the massive central NSA complex and a juvenile detention center, the abandoned Forest Haven Asylum can be seen as an epicenter of bad policies and worse politics. Just as any one of these new institutions can become a gateway that separates you from your freedom, it had been the same for the many patients committed to the asylum, often against their will. Standing on these grounds can cause most people to give pause to contemplate society's and the government's ability to strip you of all your rights and that there is a fine line separating those who are on the inside and those on the outside. While the only road leading into the ruined asylum is protected by a gate and armed guards, locals know that there are trails through the woods that lead into the facility. As anyone who has made the hike in knows, it is a haunting, frightening and exhilarating experience. In From the Inside, Mark Hahn uses his photographic art to both share his experiences, thoughts and emotions that were stirred up while spending three days inside this abandoned asylum and document the ruins as they are preserved today. His images can be seen as a platform from which to ponder the questions of freedom, mental illness and the social contracts that we most often ignore while trying to get through life. Speaking on this body of work, Hahn has said, "My goal was never to create a work that would shock or horrify the viewer, even though the facility has a brutal history and aspects of it are [and were] horrifying. But as an artist, I used the experience as a way to explore my own emotions though photography in a place where the archaeology could be used to transcend its past and through the experience, become an exploration into my own inner-self."
