A lighted doorway beckons from atop a dark and ominous flight of stairs.

A single chair sits amid scattered papers in a battered-looking room.

Rudimentary graffiti colors a water-logged hallway.

The stark images captured by Catonsville resident Chris Folsom's camera now form the first public exhibit of his photography.

The exhibit is now on display at the small nonprofit Baltimore Gallery in east Baltimore.

Along with a similarly-themed collection of photographs called "Penitentiary" captured by Pikesville photographer Richard Caplan in the prison-turned-museum of Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Folsom's work will be on display through Oct. 8.

It is part of a growing body of amateur photography that has attracted attention for its documentary-style look at the abandoned institutions that still dot metropolitan areas in surprising numbers.

Folsom's collection, called "Abandoned Spaces," consists mostly of scenes shot in two places: the Forest Haven Asylum in Laurel that closed in 1991 and the Henryton Hospital Center in Marriottsville that closed in 1986.

Forest Haven had been an asylum for mentally disabled patients before being closed after being condemned for poor living conditions.

Henryton served as a sanitorium for tuberculosis patients then later a hospital center for the mentally disabled before its closure.

Both campuses now sit abandoned and locked from the public.

Legally, Folsom, 31, should have never been there. Entering is trespassing.

But as a photographer inspired by urban decay, Folsom was drawn to the hospital's grounds, said the three-year Catonsville resident.

"You get a little bit of an Indiana Jones quality, discovering these places and traipsing through them," he said during an opening reception at the gallery Sept. 10.

In a way, Folsom and Caplan are part of a movement of amateur photographers who are drawn to such forgotten and neglected places as photographic wonderlands, and who have been getting a lot of attention for it.

Folsom and another friend, Chris Piergalline, were featured in The Baltimore Sun in June for their photographic exploring.

Jonathan Mowry, another friend and an amateur photographer from Silver Spring who shot alongside Folsom at Henryton and who attended the gallery reception, had his images of the abandoned National Park Seminary in Silver Spring published earlier this month in The Washington Times.

Folsom, who lives off Ingleside Avenue with his wife MeLisa and 20-month-old daughter Kaylee, enjoys a wide audience online, where he posts his photographs on the photo-sharing Web site Flickr and gets feedback such as, "super creepy place, nice capture of it!"

According to Mowry, his work and that of Folsom, show an appreciation for the region's abandoned places, much like what happens in Rome, where tourists snap dozens of pictures of ruins.

"This is just the first step in that life cycle," Mowry said.

At last week's reception, various members of Folsom's family took in the photos' artistic scope.

His mother, Pat Stone, of Annapolis, said she had "no idea he had an eye for this."

His wife said her husband has "been through more than a few pairs of jeans" during his adventures in the dirty and debris-ridden places that attract him, but the hobby doesn't bother her.

"I wouldn't go into most of these places. It's creepy," she said. "But he always goes in groups and I love the photography."

Aside from the illegality of entering them, police routinely label abandoned buildings as dangerous, and Folsom said he does fear "rabid raccoons, rusty nails, people living there, weak floors."

Still, the photographic potential of such abandoned places draws him back, he said, and he is up-to-date with his Tetanus shots.

He and his friends also live by a "code" that prescribes them from touching or moving anything, and from actually breaking into places, he said. An entryway has to be clear and unobstructed for them to enter, he said.

He also stays away from places that are still in use, he said, though the partially dilapidated Spring Grove Hospital campus in Catonsville has tempted him.

Folsom, an IT director for General Electric, said the attention his work has received is nice, as all photographers want their work seen.

But he doesn't entertain visions of his photography becoming a second career, he said.

It's just a hobby, albeit one he has become "obsessed with," said Folsom, who grew up in Montgomery County.

"It's a roller coaster, excited feeling," he said.

The Baltimore Gallery, located at 4519 Eastern Avenue in Baltimore, is open to the public and to school groups Tuesday through Thursday between noon and 4 p.m., and by appointment, according to director Susan Gould.

Call 410-276-7966.

To see Folsom's photos, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/zero101.

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