Convex traffic mirror on a white pole at the seawall on Ikeshima, tipped downward with the sea and mainland hills behind.
Convex traffic mirror on a white pole at the seawall on Ikeshima, tipped downward with the sea and mainland hills behind.

Traffic Mirror

Provenance

Camera
Nikon F100
Film
Cinestill 800T · 35mm · ISO 800
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

A convex traffic mirror with a chipped orange rim on a white pole, its face tipped downward. A faded sticker on the pole with a red arrow and the word 注意. A low concrete seawall and a strip of asphalt in the foreground. Flat blue water and the hills of the mainland behind.

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
Size
Type
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.
See certificate sample →

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In situ

A rusted convex traffic mirror on a white pole at a concrete seawall on Ikeshima, with red Japanese caution characters on the pole and flat blue water visible beyond a cracked barrier.A rusted convex traffic mirror on a white pole at a concrete seawall on Ikeshima, with red Japanese caution characters on the pole and flat blue water visible beyond a cracked barrier.A rusted convex traffic mirror on a white pole at a concrete seawall on Ikeshima, with red Japanese caution characters on the pole and flat blue water visible beyond a cracked barrier.A rusted convex traffic mirror on a white pole at a concrete seawall on Ikeshima, with red Japanese caution characters on the pole and flat blue water visible beyond a cracked barrier.A rusted convex traffic mirror on a white pole at a concrete seawall on Ikeshima, with red Japanese caution characters on the pole and flat blue water visible beyond a cracked barrier.
01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title
Traffic Mirror
Series
Ikeshima
Catalogue
IKE-013
Process
Giclée
Captured
17 January 2026
Camera
Nikon F100
Film
Cinestill 800T
Format
35mm
Film ISO
800
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Location
Ikeshima, Nagasaki, Japan
Recognised by
Highly Commended in Multimedia at the 2016 National Trust of Australia (NSW) Heritage Awards
02 LOCATION

Ikeshima, Nagasaki, Japan

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

A convex traffic mirror on a white pole at the edge of the seawall on Ikeshima's eastern shore, its orange rim chipped and its face tipped down so that it holds a warped reflection of the roadside rather than the road. A faded sticker on the pole still shows a red arrow and the word 注意, caution. Behind it the water runs flat and blue to the hills of the Nishi-Sonogi Peninsula, the mainland the ferry crosses to, and a low concrete wall and a strip of asphalt fill the foreground. A mirror like this only makes sense where there is traffic to warn, and there is very little of that left.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

A convex traffic mirror on a white pole at the edge of the seawall on Ikeshima's eastern shore, its orange rim chipped and its face tipped down so that it holds a warped reflection of the roadside rather than the road. A faded sticker on the pole still shows a red arrow and the word 注意, caution.

Brett Patman

Ikeshima

The series

Ikeshima

1959 to 2001 · 54 photographs

Ikeshima Coal Mine operated beneath the seabed off Nagasaki from 1959 until 29 November 2001, making it the last new coal mine to open in Japan and the last large-scale underground colliery to close. At its 1970 peak the island held 7,770 residents on a 0.86 km² rock in the Gotō Sea, housed in company-built concrete towers above a mine that reached 650 m below sea level.

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.

Anatomy · true ratio
07 MORE FROM IKESHIMA

53 other prints in this series

All prints
Dim office at Ikeshima Coal Mine, a white hard hat and a cup on two desks below a buckled venetian blind.
Hard Hat$100.00
View from an apartment window in Ikeshima-machi, utility pole and wires above silver grass with the Matsushima power station chimney across the sea.
Apartment Window$100.00
Window in the No. 2 Shaft office at Ikeshima Coal Mine, glass gone and a creeper hanging in over the sill above the sea.
Ocean Outlook$100.00
Pithead bath in the No. 2 Shaft office at Ikeshima Coal Mine, concrete troughs on a tiled floor with a vent fan on the far wall.
Pithead Bath$100.00
08 BY POST · NO SPAM

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