Backlit Blind

Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 18mm · f/8.0 · 0.6s · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

A tattered blind hangs in a derelict ward at Callan Park, illuminated by the sun. This former psychiatric hospital in Sydney closed its doors in 2008, leaving behind its decaying structures.

Edition

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Print datasheet

Title: Backlit Blind
Series: Callan Park
Catalogue: CPA-002
Process: Giclée
Captured: 29 October 2015
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size: 290 × 200 mm
Location: Rozelle, New South Wales, Australia
Authenticity: C2PA verified →
Recognised by: National Trust of Australia (NSW), 2016 Heritage Award, Multimedia

Where this was photographed

Rozelle, New South Wales, Australia

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

About this print

A tattered blind hangs in a ward at Callan Park, the fabric backlit by daylight from the window behind it. The blind is split through the lower section, the slats hanging at angles where the cords have given way. The room around the window is empty, the walls plastered and painted, the paint peeling in patches. Light enters through the gaps in the blind and falls across the floor.

Callan Park Hospital for the Insane was proclaimed as a separate institution from Gladesville on 1 August 1878. The site, on the Iron Cove foreshore at Lilyfield, was selected by Colonial Architect James Barnet for its winter sun and summer breezes. The hospital merged with Broughton Hall to form Rozelle Hospital in 1976. Full hospital closure followed on 30 April 2008. The site is now public parkland managed by Greater Sydney Parklands.

From the field notes

A tall window fills the centre of the frame, venetian blinds drawn closed but glowing with diffused daylight. The light spills across a polished concrete floor, pooling white at the base. Two-tone walls flank the window. The lower half is painted a darker grey-green, the upper half lighter, both surfaces mottled and stained. Small switch plates sit on either side. A narrow pipe runs along the skirting. The room is bare. The air looks still and cold.

— Brett Patman

The series

Callan Park

2016–2018 · 66 photographs

Callan Park opened in 1885 as the Callan Park Hospital for the Insane, on land at Rozelle in Sydney's Inner West. The Kirkbride Complex was designed by colonial architect James Barnet and superintendent Frederick Norton Manning, intended as a working example of the more progressive psychiatric care principles of the period. The hospital was reorganised through the twentieth century and many of the wards remain. Brett photographed across multiple visits between 2016 and 2018.

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