El Toro Motel

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D850
Lens: 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 48mm · f/8.0 · 1s · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

Sunlight illuminates the peeling paint of the El Toro Motel. Its iconic sign, a relic of mid-century travel, leans crookedly. Dust covers the reception desk, a forgotten welcome.

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 10 to 20 business days (framed). Shipped in protective packaging with edition certificate, paper-stock reference and a printed care guide.

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In situ

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: El Toro Motel
Series: Hotel Motel 101
Catalogue: HMO-002
Process: Giclée
Captured: 29 March 2018
Camera: NIKON D850
Lens: 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter: 1s s
ISO: 100
Focal length: 48 mm
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size: 290 × 200 mm
Location: 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

New South Wales, Australia

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

The El Toro Motel carries its name on a sign at the kerb in a serif face from the 1960s or 1970s, the lettering picked out in red against a cream-painted board. A small bull silhouette sits beside the name, the kind of decorative motif that was standard for Australian motor inns of the period giving themselves a continental flavour. Behind the sign the motel building runs along the carpark in a single-storey strip, the room doors set in the front wall under a continuous awning. The carpark is empty. A security light at the office end throws hard light across the asphalt. The road in front of the property is dark.

The El Toro Motel was photographed at 22:59 on 29 March 2018, on the southern run of Hotel Motel 101. The project covered 101 traditional Australian motor inns across three sweeps out of Sydney in late March and early April 2018: south on the Hume Highway, north on the Pacific, west on the Great Western. Drive-thru reception, parking in front of the rooms, low rise. Names like El Toro mark the postwar Australian motel's habit of reaching for continental references to make the roadside trade feel a little more aspirational.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Cream brick and blue doors under a flat tile carport. Rooms 36 and 37 sit side by side, separated by a red fire hose cabinet bolted to the wall. Yellowed curtains sag behind a window, their fabric pulling away from the rail. A bin with a black plastic liner stands near the sill. Leaf litter and grit cover the asphalt. Artificial light presses flat against the brickwork. No cars. No guests.

Brett Patman

The series

Hotel Motel 101

2015–2020 · 103 photographs

Hotel Motel 101 is a series of one hundred and one motels photographed in 2018 across three runs out of Sydney. North to the Central Coast, west through the Blue Mountains to the central western tablelands, south down the NSW South Coast. The count crept up from a planned seventy toward the round number, plus one for safety.

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.