Top Floor at Lewisham Hospital, green carpet covers the floor of a large empty room on the upper storey.

01 Lewisham HospitalLewisham2019

ISO 1001/2f/8.024mm

Series · 26 prints

Lewisham Hospital

Photographed 2019
Frames 26
Camera NIKON D850
Location New South Wales, Australia
Status Aged care facility; chapel active parish
Years 1889 to 1988
01 ABOUT THIS SERIES

Series story

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

Lewisham Hospital was opened on 9 June 1889 by Cardinal Patrick Francis Moran, on the site where the Little Company of Mary, the Blue Nuns, had established their Sydney convent in 1887. Originally named the Children's Hospital of the Holy Child, it admitted women and children only until male patients were accepted from 1912. Over the following decades it became one of Sydney's main general hospitals and nurse training schools. It closed in 1988, a century of Catholic healthcare on one block of West Street, Lewisham. The Lost Collective photographs are of the novitiate building, the wing where new entrants to the order were trained, which sits within the broader hospital, convent, and grounds complex. The historic complex is listed as a local heritage item under the Inner West LEP (formerly Marrickville LEP 2011), within the Lewisham North Precinct. The convent chapel, in a revival Byzantine style with a 1927 Möller pipe organ, still stands on the site.

03 PRINTS

Prints in this series

Hand-signed limited editions, printed from the original RAW file. Editions run from 100 down to 25 and are not reissued once they sell through.

Emerald City at Lewisham Hospital, green light fills a small utility room through a four-pane window almost entirely.
Emerald City
Torn at Lewisham Hospital, afternoon light presses through textured glass, warming the timber window frames to a deep amber.
Torn
Top Floor at Lewisham Hospital, green carpet covers the floor of a large empty room on the upper storey.
Top Floor
The Way Out at Lewisham Hospital, a bare room stripped to its bones.
The Way Out
Tesselated at Lewisham Hospital, a wide corridor or ward hall stretches deep into the building.
Tesselated
Storage at Lewisham Hospital, a narrow corridor leads to an open timber door.
Storage
Split at Lewisham Hospital, two frosted-glass windows sit on adjacent walls, their dark timber frames squaring off dull.
Split
Room For Life at Lewisham Hospital, a large empty room with high ceilings and green carpet stained white where moisture has.
Room For Life
Parkview at Lewisham Hospital, four frosted glass windows fill the far wall of an empty ward room.
Parkview
Nurses Lunch Room at Lewisham Hospital, blue panelled cabinetry lines two walls of a basement-level room.
Nurses Lunch Room
Nurses Kitchen at Lewisham Hospital, daylight pushes through vertical blinds, casting long pale strips across vinyl floor.
Nurses Kitchen
Mary at Lewisham Hospital, an upper-floor landing inside Lewisham Hospital.
Mary
Hollow Room at Lewisham Hospital, green light filters through five windows, thick with vine growth pressing against.
Hollow Room
Glow at Lewisham Hospital, two windows face the far wall of an empty room.
Glow
Frost at Lewisham Hospital, a single window fills the centre of a bare room.
Frost
Foyer Stairs at Lewisham Hospital, a dark timber staircase climbs from the foyer, its turned balusters still intact.
Foyer Stairs
Foyer Archway at Lewisham Hospital, a wide stone archway frames the entrance foyer.
Foyer Archway
Exit at Lewisham Hospital, a narrow corridor leads to a heavy timber door, swung half open.
Exit
Enclave at Lewisham Hospital, a narrow corridor leads to a timber door, half-open, light pressing through the gap.
Enclave
Doors in Doors at Lewisham Hospital, three doorframes recede in sequence through stripped-out rooms.
Doors in Doors
Clean Room at Lewisham Hospital, a bare room stripped back to its bones.
Clean Room
Blind at Lewisham Hospital, a small room, stripped back to its bones.
Blind
Bathroom Corridor at Lewisham Hospital, a narrow corridor leads to a small bathroom.
Bathroom Corridor
Basement at Lewisham Hospital, two small windows let in a weak, diffused light.
Basement
Basement Steps at Lewisham Hospital, cold light filters through barred windows into the basement level of Lewisham Hospital.
Basement Steps
Archives at Lewisham Hospital, an empty room stripped bare.
Archives
04 ABOUT THE PRINTS

How they’re made

Made to order by Brett in Sydney, from the original RAW file. Each print is hand-signed and numbered before it ships.

Paper

Ilford Galerie cotton rag, 310 gsm. Acrylic on metallic gloss, 260 gsm.

Editions

Open in XS and S. Limited in M (100), L (50), XL (25). From $100.

Print tiers →

Lead time

Unframed: 5 to 10 business days. Framed and acrylic: 10 to 20.

06 PRESS

In the press

I'm often contacted by people who used to frequent the places I photographed. They share stories that enter the collections as additions or corrections. Sometimes they send their own photos from the same viewpoints, taken decades earlier.

The Guardian

Brett Patman·2019

theguardian.com

On the LC archive.

One day I stopped at a vast abandoned factory I passed on my way home from work. There was a long section of fence missing. I wandered in, camera in hand, and that moment was the unofficial beginning of Lost Collective.

The Guardian

Brett Patman·2019

theguardian.com

On the LC archive.

Leaving a secure job to work as an artist, trying to manage inconsistent income and tempering the self-doubt and self-criticism that came with it has been one of the most difficult things I've done.

The Guardian

Brett Patman·2019

theguardian.com

On the LC archive.

See press coverage →
08 BY POST · NO SPAM

Read the full story

Articles when they're published. The history behind a place. The day of a shoot. The work between prints. No marketing, no schedule.

You're subscribed.