Julia Nicole

Here are a few images of Julia Nicole from an abandoned NY State Psychiatric Hospital. These first two images are from our first shoot together a good year and a half ago:

Shortly after this, we went and also shot at an abandoned railroad power substation in the city. While she was posing atop one of the rotary converters, we heard a police siren whoop right outside the front door. I motioned for her to quietly come down and hide in a room off to the side as there were openings in the plywood boards on the front of the building. I wasn't sure that the siren was for us, so I crept up to one of the openings and took a peek. I could see a squad car parked right in front, and one of the officers was sitting in the passenger seat with his arm hanging out of the window. Just about that time, one of my other photographer friends was arriving at the location because they'd heard it was accessible and knew I'd be there on that day. He called me to see if I was finished with the model yet and I picked up the phone and explained the situation. He went around to the front of the building to check it out and try to annoy the cop away with touristy questions, but by the time he got to the front of the building they had already pulled away, apparently clueless to what was going on a mere 12 feet from where they were parked.

I suppose our little trip to the hospital and substation made a good impression on Julia as she took quite an interest in exploring abandoned buildings afterwards. She started tagging along on trips and quickly made friends with other recreational trespassers in the area. A few months ago, she asked me to take her back to the same hospital we'd shot in originally as she hadn't gotten to go back to it since our shoot and it was one of her favorite places. The main goal of the trip was for her to shoot with her friend Stacey Lynn so I spent most of the time wandering the hallways on my own and keeping an ear out for any unexpected visitors.

Here's Julia working with Stacey in one of the bathrooms:


I was of course able to steal her away for a little bit and shoot in a few spots I had found while wandering around the building. Julia is always a good sport and a pleasure to work with. She's never complained or backed down from a challenge at a shoot yet. Definitely keep an eye out for more work with her in the future. Here she is in a patient room as well as in a printing workshop covered in red ink: