Curbed called from New York to talk about industrial relics and abandoned factories. The interview was part of a Curbed series called Behind the Lens, profiling architectural photographers on how they started, what they've shot, and how they work.
I had never heard of Curbed before they reached out. It became one of the websites I checked regularly afterwards.
"Like many who find themselves entranced by sprawling factories, deteriorating buildings, and abandoned industrial sites, Sydney-based photographer Brett Patman was blown away by the scale. But unlike others drawn to massive relics, Patman had a decent sense of how much of it worked. A former 'fitter and turner,' better known as a machinist, Patman spent hours as a service technician exploring these sites. He had been an amateur photographer for years, streetscapes, street art, 'all the normal things everyone would photograph', before curiosity got the better of him, and he turned his lens on the country's industrial heritage. After shooting inside an abandoned denim factory, he was hooked, and soon started Lost Collective, a website, Instagram account, and Facebook page dedicated to documenting images and stories of factories, plants, and other abandoned workspaces. Curbed spoke with Patman about the meaning of 'ruin porn,' the best way to capture larger-than-life subjects, and the benefits of asking politely instead of scaling fences."
Read the full Curbed interview (archived) at archive.curbed.com (Wayback).
