Thousands of mentally ill patients were being housed in Romania’s overcrowded state-run mental institutions in appalling conditions for decades. They were mistreated, heavily medicated, undernourished and very poorly housed with little regard to any standards of health or hygiene. Patients were routinely denied basic human rights and lost their dignity, autonomy, legal status and any hope of being represented or helped, let alone allowed to leave. Some recent reports have claimed that conditions have not significantly improved, or have reverted to lower standards after outside attention on the institutions ceased.

These images serve as a reminder of what can happen when the world is not watching, and can easily happen again. The collection does not include examples of the most unfortunate patients I witnessed.