Mold creeps down from the ceiling of the decaying control room of the White Bay Power Station in New South Wales, yet a bright white light streams through the window. The scene is bleak and haunting for photographer Brett Patman, whose new project aims to capture historical abandoned buildings before they’re gone.
His Lost Collective project focuses on nature’s reclamation of abandoned spaces like old hospitals, power stations, gasworks, and slaughterhouses. Patman hones in on the ways nature grows through empty buildings via rainwater filling sinks, ivy pouring in through windows, or tiny saplings sprouting through the floor.
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Patman started the project just three months ago and hopes to expand Lost Collective in his free time. The series comprises a number of abandoned sites in Sydney and New South Wales but he hopes to travel to extend those scenes globally. “The focus is mainly building upon what I have and finding more sites to document,” Patman tells The Creators Project. “I’m going to Japan for a couple of weeks in April and I’m in the process of planning locations to shoot while I’m there. So far there’s an army base, a copper mine and a ryokan. I’d love to shoot Hashima but I don’t think it’s going to happen this trip.”
Scroll to see more of Patman’s work, and remember—resistance is futile, because in the end, nature always wins.
The Control Room of the White Bay Power Station in New South Wales
Rehabilitation rooms of the abandoned Callan Park Hospital in New South Wales, which closed in 2008.
The dining room of the Callan Park Hospital.
The Kill Floor of the Blayney Abbattoir in New South Wales.
The Bathurst Gasworks in New South Wales.
To learn more about the photographer, click here.
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