Apartment block in Ikeshima-machi with its end wall covered by a climber, a jointed concrete path through silver grass in front.
Apartment block in Ikeshima-machi with its end wall covered by a climber, a jointed concrete path through silver grass in front.

Ivy Covered Block

Provenance

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

An end wall covered by a climber from ground to parapet. The long side wall to the right bare concrete with intact windows. A second block further back with most of its render exposed and its lower storeys greened over. A concrete path laid in bays, grass in the joints, through silver grass and winter scrub. A pale sky.

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

An ivy-covered reinforced-concrete apartment block at Ikeshima, its storeys barely visible beneath dense dark green growth, with dry feathery grasses along a concrete path in the foreground.An ivy-covered reinforced-concrete apartment block at Ikeshima, its storeys barely visible beneath dense dark green growth, with dry feathery grasses along a concrete path in the foreground.An ivy-covered reinforced-concrete apartment block at Ikeshima, its storeys barely visible beneath dense dark green growth, with dry feathery grasses along a concrete path in the foreground.An ivy-covered reinforced-concrete apartment block at Ikeshima, its storeys barely visible beneath dense dark green growth, with dry feathery grasses along a concrete path in the foreground.An ivy-covered reinforced-concrete apartment block at Ikeshima, its storeys barely visible beneath dense dark green growth, with dry feathery grasses along a concrete path in the foreground.
01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title
Ivy Covered Block
Series
Ikeshima
Catalogue
IKE-015
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

An apartment block in Ikeshima-machi with its end wall taken over by a climber, the growth running from the ground to the parapet in one unbroken sheet, while the concrete of the long side wall to the right still shows bare and pale with its windows intact. Further back, a second block stands with most of its render exposed and only its lower storeys greened over. A concrete path laid in bays, grass in every joint, leads toward the buildings through a slope of silver grass and winter scrub. These were company homes for mine workers and their families, stacked in reinforced concrete because the island had nowhere to spread, and the climber is taking them one wall at a time.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

An apartment block in Ikeshima-machi with its end wall taken over by a climber, the growth running from the ground to the parapet in one unbroken sheet, while the concrete of the long side wall to the right still shows bare and pale with its windows intact. Further back, a second block stands with most of its render exposed and only its lower storeys greened over.

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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