Grandy, Hospital For Criminally Insane 1981

Eugene Richards’ black and white photograph, “Grandy, Hospital For Criminally Insane,” 1981, shows a man, Grandy, lying in a hospital bed. He has a small bird on his shoulder, the only element that breaks the starkness of his profile. The image, part of a larger series about life in a psychiatric hospital, uses the stark contrast of light and shadow to convey a sense of isolation and loneliness. This photograph, along with the other works in this series, brought attention to the conditions of mental health institutions in the US.