Disturbing black and white photos reveal the miserable lives of patients in a mental hospital in the 1930s
Eisenstaedt's photography humanised the patients who had been institutionalised
JAW-dropping black and white photos capture the everyday struggles of patients at a mental hospital in New York in the 20th Century.
Photojournalist Alfred Eisenstaedt took the gritty snaps in 1937, when the Pilgrim State Hospital was the largest facility of its kind in the world.
In 1900, New York City’s asylums had become dangerously overpopulated, as caregivers struggled to deal with the workload and overcrowding.
To help ease the burden, three new facilities were set-up, including the Pilgrim State Hospital.
The institution, which was named after New York’s Commissioner of Mental Health, Dr Charles W Pilgrim, opened its doors in 1931.
By the end of World War II, the hospital held almost 14,000 patients and over 4,000 employees.
But the mental health stigma continued to isolate patients from the rest of society.
Eisenstaedt’s candid photos helped to shape the US public’s perception to mental health in the 20th century, as those pictured in the images looked terribly normal.
Unlike his contemporaries, Eisenstaedt used a 35mm film camera to take the shots.
Even though the smaller devices weren’t equipped with flash, they allowed the photographer to shoot people in action, evoking a more candid feel.
Describing his decision to take this alternative approach, Eisenstaedt told New York Magazine: "They don't take me too seriously with my little camera.
"I don't come as a photographer. I come as a friend."
While some of his moving snaps show patients longingly gazing out of the hospital windows, others capture the mentally ill constrained by straight-jackets.
Some of the most harrowing images showed residents going for hydrotherapy, which the Pilgrim State Hospital described a "continuous baths".
If doctors believed patients were close to a breakdown, they would be kept in the warm water for hours on end to help calm them down.
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When the images were published in Life in 1938, there were 500,000 men, women and children incarcerated in psychological institutions in the USA.
Alongside the poignant pictures, the magazine printed: “Mentally balanced people shun and fear the insane.
“The general public refuses to face the terrific problem of what should be done for them.
“Today, though their condition has been much improved, they are still the most neglected, unfortunate group in the world.
“(These) pictures showing the dark world of the insane and what scientists are doing to lead them back to the light of reason.”
German-born photographer Eisenstaedt passed away in 1995 at the age of 96.
Decades on, his breath-taking snaps continue to be remembered.
His iconic picture of an American sailor kissing a nurse during the V-J Day celebration was recently remembered as Time’s 100 Most Influential Photos of All Time.
It’s not just Eisenstaedt’s photos that helped to change the way the public viewed mentally ill members of society.
Their findings were published in a Life magazine article that was used as an exposé to shed light on the shocking conditions inside the institution and to campaign for better facilities.