It has been quite some time since I had the opportunity to view Bill Diodato's photographic presentation c/o Ward 81, a now abandoned psychiatric unit for women located in the Oregon State Mental Hospital. It has been nearly nine months now that I have sat with this work, intending to write a review. I still lack the words adequate to what I feel when I look at these photos. I could have had a child in that time yet putting together a few sentences adequate to the task still eludes me.
Haunting. That is the word that keeps asserting itself. Provokative. Poignantly sad. Atmospheres in which Easter egg pastels the likes of which are never seen in nature are justaposed with decay, the most natural and inevitable process of all. Paper and painted flowers still flush with bloom festoon walls while a bat skeleton slowly crumbles on the tile floor.
Perhaps the most telling endorsement I can give you is that I viewed the book only one time in February and, although I intended to write a review all these months I never viewed it again until today. And yet, with that single view those images...the colors, the poignancy, the feeling of the rooms...I can feel, even smell those rooms, hear the footsteps...none of that ever left me. And it wasn't just one compelling image that stayed with me. Image after image has found its way into my psyche. On today's viewing, my second, I could almost anticipate what each page would bring, as though I had been taken on a tour of the ward, walked it with my own steps and had a memory of what was around each corner. And this was a view of the book in digital form. I can only imagine what holding it in paper form would yield.
It is no surprise to me that Diodato's work has won accolades including being one of 10 works honored by the Communication Arts Photography Annual in 2011 and being named first runner up in the Eric Hoffer Independent Book Award Art Category for 2011.
Go here for more information and click on Bill's name on the homepage to see more images from this book.
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