Rating: 
Summary: This book was an experience
Review: The somewhat haunting photographs of the interior of the asylum makes one try to imagine how life was for those souls who lived there. The beautiful architecture of those majestic buildings and well-manicured grounds is a testament to an era of compassion. There is one photograph in particular that caught my attention, on page 185 that has what appears to be a ghostly image of a man standing in the doorway of room 50. A book you can look at over and over again and see new things in the detailed photographs.
Rating:
Summary: Spectacular!
Review: This book should be required reading in Psych 101 classes. Photography classes as well.The author gently uses her camera and prolific writing style to tell a story that both inspires and shocks you at the same time. There are incredible amounts of patient and staff histories both touching and surprising. The book inspires one to ponder the life of each person profiled. One can only hope that Johnson continues along the same lines and creates another masterpiece like Angels in the Architecture.
Rating:
Summary: Spectacular!
Review: This book should be required reading in Psych 101 classes. Photography classes as well. The author gently uses her camera and prolific writing style to tell a story that both inspires and shocks you at the same time. There are incredible amounts of patient and staff histories both touching and surprising. The book inspires one to ponder the life of each person profiled. One can only hope that Johnson continues along the same lines and creates another masterpiece like Angels in the Architecture.
Rating:
Summary: Photographs Speak Volumes
Review: This is a beautiful book. Ms. Johson's photographs and interviews put in perspective the story of early American psychiatric care, warts and all. It's as much a book about institutional architecture as it is the story of institutional psychiatric care. It not only tells the story of the institution, but it's impact on the people of northern Michigan. The interviews alone are worth the price. The photographs are stunning. Thank you Wayne State Press for giving this talented artist the opportunity to tell an often unspoken (and misunderstood) story of American history.
Rating:
Summary: Angles in the Architecture
Review: To Heidi....What a beautiful and important history of the
Traverse City State Hospital she has complied...For her work
and due diligence...I offer this poem of gratitude. "Angels
in the Architecture"
Captures by lens and aperture
Poignancies of patients plights,
The ennui of endless days, nights,
The efforts made to alleviate
Unhappiness and to pacificate.
The book presnts a cameo
Of how it was so long ago,
The sunlit wards, the kind nurses,
A sick person's plaintive verses.
The volume is a worthy tribute
To angles aiding the destiture.
Rating:
Summary: Angles in the Architecture
Review: To Heidi....What a beautiful and important history of the
Traverse City State Hospital she has complied...For her work
and due diligence...I offer this poem of gratitude. "Angels
in the Architecture"
Captures by lens and aperture
Poignancies of patients plights,
The ennui of endless days, nights,
The efforts made to alleviate
Unhappiness and to pacificate.
The book presnts a cameo
Of how it was so long ago,
The sunlit wards, the kind nurses,
A sick person's plaintive verses.
The volume is a worthy tribute
To angles aiding the destiture.
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