Day With Choe

Mr. Dave Choe breezed into my life very unexpectedly the other day. He wanted to take me somewhere he thought I’d find very interesting. We drove to Boyle Heights and pulled into the parking lot of the Old County Hospital, it appears to be abandoned. Immediately I knew this would be good.

He was meeting some friends who were doing a photo shoot for an erotic/evil calendar. To help give you a quick mental picture, imagine a nude model covered in fake blood to mimic “Carrie” in the infamous prom queen scene.

Anyway, we had some crawling around in this abandoned hospital to do. First stop boiler room, definitely has horror movie potential. Next were long pitch black hallways that seemed to go on forever, with piles of medical equipment lying around and in corners. Everything seemed paused in time and collecting dust.

As I continue exploring, I tried to get a sense of the struggle for life that took place here, a long time ago. There were baby incubators covered in dust and broken MRI machines, it served as a perfect metaphor for our current state of health care. It felt like a glimpse into the of future of our hospitals.

And it appears the movie and television industry don’t mind. This hospital is frequently used as a back drop because of it’s dark and ominous character. Even as we jumped into the car and left, we see the discovery channels “Most Haunted Places” film crew gearing up to create some more bullshit reality content. It seems as long as we are being entertained then who gives a shit about the bigger picture.

But it was definitely fun crawling around this place and I got some interesting photos out of it too. It’s always good to see Mr. Choe.

SABER R.I.P.