He began his professional career as a trader, working in some of Australia’s factories, power plants and other industrial facilities. But photography has always been his passion. “I bought my camera in 2011 and did not know what to do,” explains Patman. “I just started taking pictures of the skyline and the city and just typical postcard photos that everyone has seen a million times. I ran my mind a little bit to think, ‘What could be more interesting than that?’” It turned out that the answer was hidden in public view. Patman began recording some of his visits to industrial facilities. But it was an obsolete location that caught most of his interest – the abandoned Bradmill gin factory in Yarraville, a Melbourne suburb. He went through an open section of the fence and started taking pictures. What he did not know at the time was that he had just set his life on a new path. Since 2011, Patman has traveled to deserted areas across Australia to take photos – not just factories, but hotels, wool sheds, a former homeless camp and more. Now, it’s his full career.
Travel to Memory Lane
As soon as Patman began to take his photography career seriously and upgrade to better equipment, he started posting some of his photos on Facebook. Followers sometimes shared memories of the places he posted and shared the photo on their own pages, bringing in new fans. After Patman posted his photos from the closed Wangi power station in New South Wales, the dribble of comments turned into a flood. “There was this influx of workers and families and families of workers, brothers, moms and dads and everyone was knocking in and saying, ‘Oh, look. I was working in this room. I was working in this workshop. Do you remember Bob who ran “The store? My God, it was hard to deal with,” says Patman. A boiler from Wangi Power Station, which was decommissioned in 1986. Brett Patman / Lost Collective But not every place had positive memories. One of Patman’s most controversial shootings was at Callan Park Hospital for the Insane, a former Sydney psychiatric institution. A government committee at the hospital found that there was a widespread culture of abuse. At an event where Patman presented some of his photographs, a woman in the audience spoke out saying that her brother had been physically abused there and that it was not right to take artistic photographs of a place where so many bad things had happened. Patman acknowledges how many horrible things have happened in Callan Park, but believes it is important to document both good and bad. “I think storytelling is important,” he says. “If it encourages people who had a part of this story to come out and say something, then that, to me, is worth it.” To see more of Patman’s work, visit his photographic work website: Lost Collective.
