Peanuts mural in the children's ward of an abandoned hospital -- by Joe Reifer

A Peanuts cartoon mural in the children’s ward of an abandoned military hospital. Unlike the smaller murals in individual rooms, this larger play area piece shows the whole gang including Snoopy, Sally, Linus, Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty, and Woodstock. Those familiar with exploring abandoned buildings will notice the telltale signs of scrappers tearing out the ceiling tiles to search for metal to salvage.

Technical note: The dynamic range was much too wide to capture this scene in one shot. The image above is comprised of 3 long exposures on a tripod, blended together manually on layer masks in Photoshop. If I hadn’t told you this information, would you have noticed? Hopefully you were too busy looking at the content and wondering how this space looked in the past.

Smurfs cartoon art in an abandoned hospital -- by Joe Reifer

The basement level children’s ward in the abandoned hospital at the former George Air Force Base has a series of cartoon murals on the walls. George AFB is located in the city of Victorville in the Mojave Desert, and was decommissioned in 1992. Renamed the Southern California Logistics Airport, the site has been used to film a number Hollywood movies, and also has an impressive boneyard. Some of the old base housing has been used by the Army and Marines for urban warfare training. The hospital building interior and some of the surrounding buildings show considerable evidence of paintball use.