Library Collections: Visual Still: Enlargement

A naked elderly man with other men.



Visual Still Information

Title: Christmas In Purgatory, Page 32
From: Christmas In Purgatory: A Photographic Essay On Mental Retardation
Original caption: "I saw patients naked, with rags or nothing more than straw to protect them against the cold, damp weather. I saw how in their wretched state they were deprived of fresh air to breathe, of water to quench their thirst, and of the basic necessities of life. I saw them turned over for safe keeping to brutal jailers. I saw them chained in damp, cramped holes without light or air; people would be ashamed to keep in such places the wild animals that are cared for at great expense in our large cities. This is what I observed almost everywhere in France, and that is how the mentally ill are treated almost everywhere in Europe."
Esquirol, 1818
Creator: Burton Blatt and Fred Kaplan (photographer)
Date: 1974
Source: Available at selected libraries