Bill DIODATO - Photographer

Renowned Photographer Releases First Book
Bill Diodato’s “Care of Ward 81” remembers long forgotten women who occupied The Oregon State Mental Asylum’s Ward 81 Award Winning photographer Bill Diodato announces today the release of the “C/O Ward 81”, the first of two monographs on “the demise of institutional services.”
Located in Salem - The Oregon State Insane Asylum - as it was then known and which was also the location for the movie “One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest”, had a ward set up at the end of the 19th Century to help women with psychiatric needs and provide them with isolation – Ward 81.
During 2005, the entire site was being redeveloped and so the Oregon State Legislature authorized Bill Diodato to photograph and thus document the cremated remains of some 3500 deceased patients of the “Asylum” which, in one final act of inhumanity had been cremated buried and exhumed.
During this very moving project - Warden Marvin Fickle also granted Bill access to the infamous closed-off Ward 81. Knowing that he would be the last person to document the ward, Bill felt a sense of responsibility to remember the women who inhabited this extraordinary place.
The result is “Care of Ward 81”. Some people swear that if you look at these images from the right angle or in the right light you can actually SEE the figures of the women who once lived in this remarkable place.
Bill Diodato has taken it upon himself to remember the women of ward 81 for all time, via this unique book.
For more on Bill Diodato please go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Diodato
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