Bathrooms

Provenance

Camera
NIKON D850
Lens
14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings
14mm · f/8.0 · 1/8 · ISO 100
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

Within Waterfall Sanatorium, patient bathrooms show signs of severe disrepair. Cracked tiles and rusted plumbing fixtures stand as silent witnesses to the building's long abandonment.

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 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

Bathrooms at Waterfall Sanatorium, a brown vinyl armchair sits centre-frame on a floor thick with plaster dust and debris.Bathrooms at Waterfall Sanatorium, a brown vinyl armchair sits centre-frame on a floor thick with plaster dust and debris.Bathrooms at Waterfall Sanatorium, a brown vinyl armchair sits centre-frame on a floor thick with plaster dust and debris.Bathrooms at Waterfall Sanatorium, a brown vinyl armchair sits centre-frame on a floor thick with plaster dust and debris.Bathrooms at Waterfall Sanatorium, a brown vinyl armchair sits centre-frame on a floor thick with plaster dust and debris.
01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title
Bathrooms
Series
Waterfall Sanatorium
Catalogue
WSA-003
Process
Giclée
Captured
24 June 2018
Camera
NIKON D850
Lens
14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture
f/8.0
Shutter
1/8 s
ISO
100
Focal length
14 mm
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size
290 × 200 mm
Location
Waterfall, New South Wales, Australia
Recognised by
Highly Commended in Multimedia at the 2016 National Trust of Australia (NSW) Heritage Awards
03 THE STORY

About this print

A patient bathroom at Waterfall Sanatorium. The walls are tiled to dado height in small-format ceramic, the grout darkened with age and the tiles cracked across patches. The plumbing fixtures are rusted at the fittings, the basins still set in their original positions against the wall. The floor is concrete, scuffed and stained. The fittings have been left in place since the sanatorium closed in 1958.

Waterfall Sanatorium opened on 14 April 1909 as the Hospital for Consumptives, on a site about 26 miles south of Sydney at around 1,000 feet elevation. The location was chosen because medical orthodoxy of the era held that tuberculosis required high, rarefied atmosphere away from city air. The hospital was renamed Waterfall Sanatorium around 1912. It closed as a TB sanatorium in 1958 when antibiotics and thoracic surgery made the isolation model unnecessary.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

A brown vinyl armchair sits centre-frame on a floor thick with plaster dust and debris. Cream ceramic tiles climb the walls halfway up. A towel rail rusts on the right. Above the doorway, "GET OUT" is scrawled in grey paint. Afternoon light falls in a hard diagonal across the tiled wall behind, catching turquoise graffiti. Through the open doorway, another tiled room leads deeper into the building. A spray can lies on the floor near the skirting.

Brett Patman

Waterfall Sanatorium

The series

Waterfall Sanatorium

2016–2018 · 54 photographs

The first patients arrived at the Hospital for Consumptives, Waterfall on 14 April 1909, with initial provision for 180 men. A women's wing opened in May 1912 for 120; by 1919 it had become the largest sanatorium in New South Wales, holding 788 patients. The site sat at about 1,000 feet (305 m), 26 miles (42 km) south of Sydney, on the medical theory that tuberculosis needed 'high and rarefied atmosphere in the country away from the grime and pollution of cities'.

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
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