No. 1 shaft headframe at Ikeshima Coal Mine, rusted riveted lattice with two head sheaves against a blue sky.
No. 1 shaft headframe at Ikeshima Coal Mine, rusted riveted lattice with two head sheaves against a blue sky.

Rusted Headframe

Provenance

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

A riveted lattice headframe in deep rust-orange. Two head sheaves inside the tower, spokes showing through the bracing. A landing platform with a rail on the near side. A leaning timber pole with a stay wire beside it. A corrugated shed at the foot. Winter grass and pipelines in the foreground. Blue sky with cloud building.

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

A rusting steel lattice headframe with two spoked sheave wheels silhouetted against a bright sky at Ikeshima Coal Mine, with dry grasses blurring across the foreground.A rusting steel lattice headframe with two spoked sheave wheels silhouetted against a bright sky at Ikeshima Coal Mine, with dry grasses blurring across the foreground.A rusting steel lattice headframe with two spoked sheave wheels silhouetted against a bright sky at Ikeshima Coal Mine, with dry grasses blurring across the foreground.A rusting steel lattice headframe with two spoked sheave wheels silhouetted against a bright sky at Ikeshima Coal Mine, with dry grasses blurring across the foreground.A rusting steel lattice headframe with two spoked sheave wheels silhouetted against a bright sky at Ikeshima Coal Mine, with dry grasses blurring across the foreground.
01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title
Rusted Headframe
Series
Ikeshima
Catalogue
IKE-051
Process
Giclée
Captured
18 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

The No. 1 shaft headframe at Ikeshima Coal Mine, close enough to count the rivets, its riveted lattice gone to a deep rust-orange against a blue sky with cloud building behind it. Both head sheaves are still in the tower, one above the other, the spokes showing through the bracing, and a landing platform with its rail clings to the near side. A leaning timber pole with a stay wire stands beside it, a corrugated shed sits at its foot, and the winter grass and pipelines of the surface plant fill the foreground. This shaft was completed in 1967, the year the island also got its own power station and desalination plant, and it carried mine workers and coal until 2001.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

The No. 1 shaft headframe at Ikeshima Coal Mine, close enough to count the rivets, its riveted lattice gone to a deep rust-orange against a blue sky with cloud building behind it. Both head sheaves are still in the tower, one above the other, the spokes showing through the bracing, and a landing platform with its rail clings to the near side.

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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