Transformer room in the winder house at Ikeshima Coal Mine, cream steel casings either side of an aisle with severed cables hanging.
Transformer room in the winder house at Ikeshima Coal Mine, cream steel casings either side of an aisle with severed cables hanging.

Transformer Room

Provenance

Camera
Nikon F100
Film
Kodak Portra 400 · 35mm · ISO 400
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

Cream-painted transformer casings in rows either side of a narrow aisle, bushings on top. A bundle of severed cables hanging from the ceiling frame. Rusted steel doors at the far end parted at their seams, daylight through the gaps. Lengths of steel and scattered debris on the floor.

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.
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In situ

Dense black cable bundle hanging from an exposed ceiling frame runs the length of a corridor at Ikeshima Coal Mine, with two ribbed transformers along one wall and teal double doors at the far end.Dense black cable bundle hanging from an exposed ceiling frame runs the length of a corridor at Ikeshima Coal Mine, with two ribbed transformers along one wall and teal double doors at the far end.Dense black cable bundle hanging from an exposed ceiling frame runs the length of a corridor at Ikeshima Coal Mine, with two ribbed transformers along one wall and teal double doors at the far end.Dense black cable bundle hanging from an exposed ceiling frame runs the length of a corridor at Ikeshima Coal Mine, with two ribbed transformers along one wall and teal double doors at the far end.Dense black cable bundle hanging from an exposed ceiling frame runs the length of a corridor at Ikeshima Coal Mine, with two ribbed transformers along one wall and teal double doors at the far end.
01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title
Transformer Room
Series
Ikeshima
Catalogue
IKE-028
Process
Giclée
Captured
17 January 2026
Camera
Nikon F100
Film
Kodak Portra 400
Format
35mm
Film ISO
400
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

Transformers in the No. 2 shaft winder house at Ikeshima Coal Mine, their cream-painted steel casings standing in rows on either side of a narrow aisle, with bushings on top and a bundle of severed cables hanging from the ceiling frame between them. Rusted steel doors at the far end have parted at their seams, and daylight comes through every gap in bright lines. Lengths of steel and scattered debris lie across the floor. These transformers fed the winder above, the 600 kW machine whose rope went down the shaft to the cage, so the electricity that moved every mine worker in and out of the pit passed through this room first.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Transformers in the No. 2 shaft winder house at Ikeshima Coal Mine, their cream-painted steel casings standing in rows on either side of a narrow aisle, with bushings on top and a bundle of severed cables hanging from the ceiling frame between them. Rusted steel doors at the far end have parted at their seams, and daylight comes through every gap in bright lines.

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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