Boiler 2 Void To Glass Curtain

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 14mm · f/9.0 · 1/40 · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

An empty void marks the place where Boiler No. 2 once stood inside White Bay Power Station. Sunlight falls through the tall steel-framed windows and stretches across the floor where the machinery sat. Beyond the glass, the coal loader and the chimneys are still standing. Vegetation has begun to take hold at the edges.

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

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

Boiler 2 Void To Glass Curtain at White Bay Power Station, black-framed print displayed in situ on a wall.

Boiler 2 Void To Glass Curtain at White Bay Power Station, raw timber-framed print displayed in situ on a wall.

Boiler 2 Void To Glass Curtain at White Bay Power Station, glass print displayed in situ on a wall.

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Boiler 2 Void To Glass Curtain
Series: White Bay Power Station
Catalogue: WBP-097
Process: Giclée
Captured: 27 May 2016
Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/9.0
Shutter: 1/40 s
ISO: 100
Focal length: 14 mm
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size: 297 × 210 mm
Location: Rozelle, 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

Rozelle, New South Wales, Australia

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

The void where Boiler No. 2 once stood at White Bay Power Station opens through to the glass-curtain wall on the far side of the boiler house, the empty space framed by the structural steel that once supported the boiler. The floor at the base of the void is concrete, with the anchor patterns where the boiler was bolted down. Steel framework rises around the void to the height where the boiler reached its full thirty metres. Through the framing, the glass-curtain wall on the harbour side of the building admits daylight in soft squares from the panes that remain intact. The far wall reads as the destination of the light coming in.

Three of the four original Babcock & Wilcox boilers in the A Station boiler house were removed during the 1990s decontamination and stripping program. Boiler No. 1 remains in situ in the northern section of the boiler house. The voids of Boilers Nos. 2, 3, and 4 remain visible as empty spaces where the boilers stood, with the structural steel surround still in place. The view from the Boiler No. 2 void through to the glass-curtain wall is one of the most architecturally legible parts of the building, showing the volume the working plant once occupied and the light that has been entering the space ever since.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

An empty void where Boiler No. 2 once stood, its absence leaving behind a cathedral of steel and shadow. Sunlight spills through towering windows, casting long beams across the floor where machinery once roared.

Brett Patman

The series

White Bay Power Station

124 photographs

White Bay Power Station is a former coal-fired power station on Wanngal Country at Rozelle, at the head of White Bay on Sydney Harbour, built to power Sydney's trams and suburban trains and in service from May 1917 until December 1983. The New South Wales Department of Railways designed it in its own drawing office and began building in June 1912. The turbine hall, boilerhouse, switch house and control room stand on a 38,000 square metre site behind two steel chimney stacks, the main steelwork stamped with British manufacturers' names.

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.