Glass Curtain

1 review

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 14mm · f/9.0 · 1/160 · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

Sunlight illuminates the vast, grimy windows of White Bay Power Station, creating a shimmering glass curtain. Dust motes dance in the light, highlighting the industrial structure’s advanced decay.

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 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: Glass Curtain
Series: White Bay Power Station
Catalogue: WBP-106
Process: Giclée
Captured: 27 May 2016
Camera: NIKON D810
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/9.0
Shutter: 1/160 s
ISO: 100
Focal length: 14 mm
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size: 290 × 200 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

A glass-block curtain wall at White Bay Power Station carries the light into one of the upper levels of the building, the panes set in deep concrete mullions that divide the column into a regular grid. Through the wall, one of the surviving chimney stacks rises against the sky, the silhouette of the stack visible through the translucent panes. Some of the glass blocks are intact and clear; others are cracked, missing, or boarded over with plywood. The red brick of the surrounding facade frames the column on both sides, the joints darkened from over a century of harbour weather. The light coming through is soft, blue-white where the glass holds.

White Bay Power Station was built by the NSW Government Railways and Tramways from 1912 onwards as a coal-fired plant supplying traction current to Sydney's tram and rail network. The plant ran from 1917 until Christmas Day 1983. Glass-block curtain walls of this kind were the British municipal-generating-station tradition for admitting daylight into the upper levels of large industrial halls. The walls survived the plant's working life and the four-decade gap since. The chimneys behind them are still visible from many vantage points across the harbour.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

A towering mosaic of glass and steel, where light filters through dust-streaked panes, casting shifting patterns across the skeletal remains of the boiler house.

Brett Patman

The series

White Bay Power Station

2015–2018 · 124 photographs

Bricklayers laid 3.7 million bricks at White Bay across three and a quarter years of Phase 1 construction, on Wanngal Country at the western edge of Rozelle. The New South Wales Government Railways ran the build through its own Construction Department. By 3 July 1913, boilers and alternators were running before the buildings that housed them were complete.

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.