Basins

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 14mm · f/8.0 · 0.6s · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

Three porcelain sinks line the foreground at Callan Park, their taps tarnished and basins streaked with grime. White tiles line the walls. A wall-mounted control panel behind them carries 4 pressure gauges and 4 toggle switches, labelled for bath and shower circuits, with a teal access panel below. The room is part of the Kirkbride Block.

Edition

Open edition

Open edition
Printed to order, no fixed quantity. Each print is hand-signed by the photographer.

Limited edition
A fixed number of prints exist. Once sold, the edition closes permanently. Each print is individually numbered and signed.

$100.00 AUD

Colour

Signed, numbered, with COA. Made to order in 5 to 10 business days (unframed). Shipped in protective packaging with edition certificate, paper-stock reference and a printed care guide.

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In situ

Basins at Callan Park, black-framed print displayed in situ on a wall.

Basins at Callan Park, raw timber-framed print displayed in situ on a wall.

Basins at Callan Park, glass print displayed in situ on a wall.

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Basins
Series: Callan Park
Catalogue: CPA-004
Process: Giclée
Captured: 29 October 2015
Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter: 0.6s s
ISO: 100
Focal length: 14 mm
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size: 297 × 210 mm
Location: Rozelle, New South Wales, Australia
Authenticity: C2PA verified provenance →
Recognised by: Highly Commended in Multimedia at the 2016 National Trust of Australia (NSW) Heritage Awards

02 LOCATION

Rozelle, New South Wales, Australia

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

A row of communal handwashing basins runs along one wall of a ward bathroom at Callan Park. The basins are white porcelain, set on a single slab counter at standard height, with brass taps and a single mirror mounted on the wall above each pair. The grouting between the wall tiles has darkened to grey-brown. A few of the basins are chipped at the rim. The cold-water taps still turn; the hot-water taps have been disconnected. The floor below is the same composite tile as the corridor outside. The room smells faintly of the soap that was last used in it.

Communal handwashing was part of the daily routine in Kirkbride wards, supervised by nursing staff at fixed times. Patients used the same basins for the same activities every day for the duration of their stay. The arrangement was efficient for the institution and standardised for the patient experience. Bathrooms like this one served dozens of patients at a time. After Callan Park closed in 2008 the bathrooms were locked but not gutted. The basins, the taps, and the mirrors are still mounted to the same walls. The water is off. A single nursing-station call button sits on the wall by the door, also disconnected.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Two porcelain basins sit against a wall of square cream tiles. The glaze is speckled with grime. Heavy cast iron taps, separate hot and cold, jut from the splashback. Behind the basins, a pale green metal panel is set into the tiled wall. Above it, a recessed cabinet holds five pressure gauges and valve controls, their faces clouded with dust. Flat grey light falls through a window to the left.

Brett Patman

The series

Callan Park

95 photographs

Callan Park is a former psychiatric hospital at Rozelle on Iron Cove, proclaimed Callan Park Hospital for the Insane on 1 August 1878 and closed on 30 April 2008. Its Kirkbride Complex, built from 1880 to 1885 by Colonial Architect James Barnet with Inspector General of the Insane Frederic Norton Manning and Botanic Gardens director Charles Moore, was the first hospital in Australia designed on moral therapy principles: 10 sandstone ward blocks, 5 male and 5 female, linked by a continuous covered veranda in 61 hectares of parkland.

View all in this series →

05 SIZE GUIDE

Print sizes

The anatomy view shows what this finish is as a physical object: paper margin, mat band, frame depth, acrylic profile. The comparison strip shows how each size sits relative to the others at true scale. Click a size or a finish to update both.