I began taking photographs inside the empty buildings of the State Hospital in Cambridge, Minnesota in 1998. My interest in the project expanded as I explored the decaying buildings and researched the history of the institution. I kept returning to the buildings and shot hundreds of photographs, mostly using a large-format 4x5 camera. In 2003, the Minnesota Legislature approved funding to demolish the old brick cottages. In an effort to preserve a piece of the history that was erased, I set up this site to share some of the information I gathered and to show a small sample of the photographs I took in those five years.

I am currently working on putting together a book of the Cambridge State Hospital photographs from this body of work. I am completing this project with the generous help of an Artist's Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.

 

 

Kent Anderson is a fiscal year 2010 recipient of an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is funded, in part, by the Minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.