A year ago, I ventured into the abandoned Manteno State Hospital. Only one building on the original campus remains untouched. All of the other buildings were demolished or renovated. Click here to read my blog entry from back then.

A few month back, I returned to the site for what was most likely my last visit. There is a new housing development going up across the street and it won't be long before this structure is demolished.

The hospital is located in Manteno, Illinois and was abandoned in the early 1980's. At one time, over 8,000 patients were housed in the facility. With a staff of less just over 200 people, the facility had a reputation for inadequate care. Stories of patient abuse surfaced--and hundreds of patients died during their "treatment". This building is well known to "ghost hunters" around the country. Visitors report hearing screaming--and some insist that they've seen ghosts.

I wasn't too concerned about the ghosts for two reasons. First, the building has deteriorated so much that I practically felt like I was outside in many of the rooms! Next, HDR Efex Pro2 has the "Ghost Reduction" feature--which I set at 100%.

My biggest concerns were meeting up with a less than desirable character in there (and possibly interrupting a drug deal) or having a section of the roof fall on me. 

I brought my Nikon D800 camera, Nikon 14-24 2.8 lens and Gitzo tripod with me into the building. All of the photographs consist of multiple exposures blended together using HDR Efex Pro2 software to create high dynamic range (HDR) images. HDR was critical here as most of the scenes had a combination of bright highlights from the windows along with dark shadows in the building. Here are a few of the images:

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Fortunately, I lived to blog the story!