Old Bedlam and Fort Laramie from Susan Moldenhauer

In the rolling eastern plains of Wyoming along the Platte River lies the historic military settlement of Fort Laramie. Its first structure, and the centerpiece of the fort, is Old Bedlam, a Greek Revival two-story building that served as quarters for unmarried officers. Its name references the infamous Bedlam insane asylum in England given the legendary parties that were rumored to have occurred there.

My work at Old Bedlam was created with dancer Margaret Wilson and artist Wendy Lemen Bredehoft for our creative collective known as Sequencing Through Time and Place. Together we explore ideas about the creative process and place. The wavy panes of glass throughout Old Bedlam were intriguing to each of us in different ways. For me, it became a distorting prism through which I could photograph Margaret, framing her in the glass from interior and exterior perspectives, creating poetic images that infer the spiritual presence of those who came before us.

Most of this work is mounted on bamboo.

Two images are archivally matted in white frames:

Old Bedlam Impression V
Old Bedlam Impression XI