Sandstorm

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D850
Lens: 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 200mm · f/8.0 · 1/200 · ISO 160
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

A driving sandstorm envelops the corrugated iron shacks of Tin City. Wind-blown dunes partially bury the structures, obscuring the coastal landscape. The harsh elements reshape this isolated settlement.

Edition

Open edition

Open edition
Printed to order, no fixed quantity. Each print is hand-signed by the photographer.

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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: Sandstorm
Series: Tin City
Catalogue: TCI-037
Process: Giclée
Captured: 31 January 2018
Camera: NIKON D850
Lens: 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter: 1/200 s
ISO: 160
Focal length: 200 mm
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size: 290 × 200 mm
Location: Lake Macquarie, 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

Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

A sandstorm at Tin City reduces the settlement to a series of partial silhouettes. The sand carried by the wind off the dunes fills the foreground of the frame, blowing parallel to the ground. The shacks behind it appear as dark shapes, the corrugated rooflines cutting in and out of the haze as the wind eases and gusts. The ocean is invisible in the direction of the storm, and the dunes themselves are obscured. Daylight comes through as a flat amber wash. Anything not anchored down has been blown into the corners of the frame.

The Stockton Bight is exposed to the southern weather systems that cross from the Pacific to the New South Wales coast. Sandstorms here can run for hours, and the settlement's residents build for them. Doors and windows are tight-fitted and sealed where possible. The cladding on the windward sides of the shacks takes the worst of the sand-blast; on most buildings, the iron on those walls has been replaced more often than the rest. Storms like this one are part of the standing weather of Tin City, not an exception to it. The shacks are designed to be passed through by sand and wind without coming apart.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Sand drives low across the ground, blurring the base of a row of shacks at Tin City. A bright blue corrugated iron wall stands out against the grey and weathered structures beside it. A water tank sits on one roof. A faded stop sign hangs from a post. Behind the buildings, the Stockton Bight dunes rise massive and bare, their pale slopes filling the sky.

Brett Patman

The series

Tin City

2018 · 37 photographs

Two tin sheds were put up on the Stockton Bight dunes in the late nineteenth century to hold provisions for sailors shipwrecked on the beach. During the Great Depression a group of squatters built a series of shacks around them. The settlement that grew became Tin City, on Worimi country, in the largest mobile coastal sand mass in the Southern Hemisphere.

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.