Breaking Down The Doors at Waterfall Sanatorium, a timber door lies flat on the floorboards, its glass panel still intact.
Breaking Down The Doors at Waterfall Sanatorium, a timber door lies flat on the floorboards, its glass panel still intact.

Breaking Down The Doors

Provenance

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

Sunlight pierces the splintered timber doors of a patient ward at Waterfall Sanatorium. Established in 1909, this facility isolated tuberculosis sufferers, its silent, decaying corridors now open to the elements.

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

Breaking Down The Doors at Waterfall Sanatorium, a timber door lies flat on the floorboards, its glass panel still intact.Breaking Down The Doors at Waterfall Sanatorium, a timber door lies flat on the floorboards, its glass panel still intact.Breaking Down The Doors at Waterfall Sanatorium, a timber door lies flat on the floorboards, its glass panel still intact.Breaking Down The Doors at Waterfall Sanatorium, a timber door lies flat on the floorboards, its glass panel still intact.Breaking Down The Doors at Waterfall Sanatorium, a timber door lies flat on the floorboards, its glass panel still intact.
01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title
Breaking Down The Doors
Series
Waterfall Sanatorium
Catalogue
WSA-005
Process
Giclée
Captured
24 June 2018
Camera
NIKON D850
Lens
14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture
f/8.0
Shutter
1/100 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
Authenticity
C2PA verified provenance →
Recognised by
National Trust of Australia (NSW), 2016 Heritage Award, Multimedia
03 THE STORY

About this print

Sunlight enters through the splintered timber doors of a patient ward at Waterfall Sanatorium. The doors have been broken at the panels at some point during the abandoned years, the timber split along the grain. The corridor beyond the doors is dust-covered, the walls peeling. Light from the broken openings falls in shafts across the floor inside.

Waterfall opened on 14 April 1909 as the Hospital for Consumptives, the NSW state-run treatment centre for advanced and chronic tuberculosis. In 1919 the sanatorium held 788 patients and was the largest TB facility in NSW. It closed as a sanatorium in 1958. The site continued in use as Garrawarra Hospital and now operates as the Garrawarra Centre for the Aged; the original sanatorium ward buildings have stood largely disused for decades.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

A timber door lies flat on the floorboards, its glass panel still intact, brass handle tarnished green. Sunlight cuts through tall red-framed windows and falls in long shadows across the dusty floor. The central door stands open. Beyond it, bare branches push through the frame. Scrub has climbed the lower walls. Paint peels from the columns in thin curls.

Brett Patman

Waterfall Sanatorium

The series

Waterfall Sanatorium

2016–2018 · 54 photographs

Waterfall Sanatorium opened on 14 April 1909, twenty-six miles south of Sydney at an elevation chosen for what the era's medical orthodoxy called "high and rarefied atmosphere". By 1919 it held seven hundred and eighty-eight patients and was the largest sanatorium in New South Wales. It closed as a tuberculosis sanatorium in 1958.

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 WATERFALL SANATORIUM

53 other prints in this series

All prints
Bathrooms at Waterfall Sanatorium, a brown vinyl armchair sits centre-frame on a floor thick with plaster dust and debris.
Bathrooms $100.00
Looking Out at Waterfall Sanatorium, broken windows viewing out towards the overgrown grounds of Waterfall Sanatorium.
Looking Out $100.00
Hanging Garden at Waterfall Sanatorium, a fern growing in brickwork between two bathroom doors.
Hanging Garden $100.00
Washroom at Waterfall Sanatorium, a narrow brick corridor opens toward a bank of timber-framed windows.
Washroom $100.00
08 BY POST · NO SPAM

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