David Ottenstein

Ottenstein was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but grew up in State College, a small town situated in central Pennsylvania. At the age of 14, he took his first photograph, which led him to pursue a degree in American Studies with a concentration in Photography from Yale University in 1982. Ottenstein lives in New Haven, Connecticut, where he has a successful commercial photography studio. His interest in fine art photography was sparked in 1998, when the architect Richard Turlington asked him to photograph the decaying Hyperion Theater in downtown New Haven. After this experience, he started to look for other abandoned buildings such as the Harmony Mill and the Mechanic Hydro industrial plant.