Patrick Boland's photo-gallery from the abandoned shipyards of Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour are a love-note to ancient, rotting machines, each more delightful than the last:

Cockatoo Island is like Peter Pan’s Never Never Land for a photographer who likes industrial and historical decay. It’s a wonderland of rusted colour. Machines smeared with grease from a thousand men’s hands. Sandstone hewned by convicts. An apocalyptic museum of towering H.G. Wells tripods and cranes. I was entranced the minute I stepped off the ferry.
Cockatoo Island Project: Photography by Patrick Boland

  • Anonymous

    Im not sure if the negs in the list know of the photographer here but to witness his work first hand you would know what he is about. Don’t bash just look and enjoy

    Good on ya pat another awesome shot – would like it hanging in my home……

    pp

  • Walt Guyll

    So, “ancient” has been moved up to encompass the late British Empire?

  • arkizzle

    “Why-a-duct.. ”

    That’s Pavel Chekov’s bridge, right?

  • Anonymous

    Yes, it’s been abandoned by so many people who worked so hard there. During WWII it was a major repair and refit centre for the Pacific. I don’t mind the HDR, there’s some ace composition there and the pics make you think about who had spent so much of their life working on building CI. That and so many of the skills required to operate the equipment is vanishing in the “civilised” world.

    Picture Australia has heaps of pictures when CI was still alive.
    http://www.pictureaustralia.org/apps/pictureaustralia?term1=cockatoo+island&Submit=search&action=PASearch&attribute1=any+field&mode=search

    Recognise this lathe from Patrick’s photo of the same? (following link)
    http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/PhotoSearchItemDetail.asp?M=0&B=3198906&SE=1

    http://patrickboland.com.au/project/content/Cockatoo_IV_241_2_3_4_5Enhancer_large.html

  • Anonymous

    Wow what an awesome gallery.

    As others have mentioned fantastic composition. Really elegant and delicate balance of massive and cumbersome subjects.
    To all the haters banging on about HDR, perhaps the artist is exploring a tool, using a fantastic subject matter to expose the power of a medium. Again as mentioned before: like impressionists exploring the dynamic nature of light.

    Lots of credit and applause to a talented artist employing a tricky technique to great effect. Well done and I for one will keep an eye out for your name. I look forward to your next gallery, can I suggest that technique that makes everything look small and like toy models.

  • butfirst

    His interior shots are definitely my favourites, and I’m not even particularly a fan of HDR imaging.

    For the record, the actual shipyards of Cockatoo Island are indeed abandoned, even if leisure activity elsewhere on the island somehow ruins the experience for the “true urban explorer”. The heritage-listed island is owned by the government and open to the public, it’s history preserved and can be explored free of any manufactured theme park experience. Land is not for sale, and the island is not being transformed into a resort.

    Cockatoo Island has, in it’s history, been a convict prison, a reform school for boys and finally a navy shipbuilding yard before it was left abandoned for more than a decade. More recently it has played host to events and exhibitions as part of the both the Sydney Arts Festival and the Sydney Biennale, including the Biennale’s opening party in the amazing Turbine Hall. I love that we have access to this odd little island in the middle of our harbour.

  • zikzak

    To me the most fascinating thing about these images of industrial decay was the minutia – the tiny wear marks here and there, the odd lever or pattern of rivets, etc. It’s stuff like that which really gives the full scope of what the place once was.

    Most of those details would probably be obscured by dim or shadowy lighting in a standard photograph. The HDR technique does a great job of letting us examine every nook and cranny of such a complex and detailed environment.

  • gorgon

    Just awesome. These pictures make my eyes smile.

    Holy crap on the people complaining about HDR/tonemapping. Good artists don’t put down other artists. Anyway, most of the artistry in photography is in the post-processing.

  • Takuan

    ancient is anything before Windows XP.

  • texasroute66

    I was disappointed. Not with the pictures, they are beautiful. I was disappointed with Cory’s description. When someone writes that they are going to show me pictures of a “Rotting ancient shipyard in Sydney Harbour” I’d really like to see one because I’m very interested in ancient life. These pictures are of a shipyard that can’t be more than say, 50 years old. If I were promised a “Rotting ancient shipyard in Egypt” shouldn’t I expect to see something like a shipyard unearthed from the sands in lower Egypt not something like an old corner of disused El Alamein oil facility? If the answer is yes then you can understand why I expected something different. A bit more accuracy please Cory.

  • Anonymous

    The HDR haters here come across like the curmudgeons who hated pop art.

    It hard to hate isn’t it. You make me laugh.

  • Anonymous

    way to jump on board with your less than exciting flickr set Holermann.

    @ #60 I was All Tomorrow’s Parties and it was very very fun. Such a great idea to have the festival on an island. The only annoying bit was security closed off a lot of the areas I wanted to explore which is weird because normally they are all open to the public to wander around.

    @52 So Okathleen, does the internet live in America only?

  • Anonymous

    I actually rather like this photo! I totally understand what people mean about overuse of HDR but I do like the effects.

  • Okathleen

    I appreciate the idea, but think more of us should look closer to home for beauty and inspiration -

    To see a world in a grain of sand,
    And a heaven in a wild flower,
    Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
    And eternity in an hour.

  • star35

    #26 “Good artists don’t put down other artists”

    On which planet?

  • J France

    52 posted by Okathleen , January 26, 2009 3:17 AM
    I appreciate the idea, but think more of us should look closer to home for beauty and inspiration -

    …and welcome to teh intertubes – I’m sure for many of us this is close to home.

    Not to mention all the other posts by Cory about locations, people and events local to him.

    And Cokatoo Isl is abandoned… from it’s original purpose.

    A few weeks ago the first “All Tomorrow’s parties” (curated by Nick Cave!) had the final leg of it’s festival there – that would’ve been amazing.

  • johnny_action

    Massive amounts of industrial apocalypse pr0n! yay!

    I really liked these photos and it comforts me that children will play and people will vacation in industrial apocalypse wonderland.

  • NormanDog

    @ 42

    Actually, the dry docks on Cockatoo Island date back to construction starting in 1847, built by convicts and for a short period one of them, The Fitzroy dock, was the biggest dry dock in the world.

    ‘Rotting’ is an adequate description, it certainly looks like everything outside is still succumbing to the elements even if the island is now looked after by a harbour authority.

  • garyb50

    All that wood just laying there… what a shame.

  • hohlermann

    If you like rotting shipards, you might be interested in my Decommissioned Ships in the Mar del Plata Port that I took in Argentina last year.

  • soupisgoodfood

    I generally don’t like that over-done HDR style, but there are some shots in there that suit it. Like someone else said, it can make them look flat, which changes the perception of the other attributes of the image, such as the colours and texture.

  • eclectro

    You know what did it for me?? The mowed grass in one of the pics. Then I knew that this place was not truly “abandoned.” Indeed, it’s being turned into a friggin’ resort;

    http://www.cockatooisland.gov.au/

    They got a campground even with a “coin operated barbecue.” Interesting nonetheless, but the true urban explorer knows the difference.

  • palindrome

    “hewned”?

    That should be “hewed”.

    Or maybe hewn’d?

  • subliminati

    Yes, not exactly “abandoned” but crazy shots to get your imagination running none the less.

    I think its also worth noting that the majority (if not all) of these shots have been HDR processed, which tends to give a hyper real quality.

  • odaiwai

    Overly HDR processed, if you ask me. Does the photographer have any technique other than super wide angle and over-the-top HDR?

  • Valis667

    “hewned”?

    That should be “hewed”.

  • TheChickenAndTheRice

    a love-note to ancient, rotting machines, each more delightful than the last

    Yeah, hey buddy. I’m an ancient, rotting machine and I don’t appreciate you’re telling me what’s a love note. Feel me?

    Next time you wanna post some pictures, just do it. Save your flowery stuff for your wifey!

    - Ancient, Rotting Machine

  • padster123

    Interesting that, in the attempt to get more dynamic range into images (HDR, blah blah), the result is actually a kind of *flattening* of the image. These actually look rather like monochrome photocopies that have been colour-washed. Not unpleasant – but distracting. You become aware of texture, at the expense of large areas of light and shade. The fact is, these pics look VERY futzed around with.

  • robulus

    Wow, tough crowd!

    Beautiful images, nice to see my city on BB. Coin operated barbecues are ubiquitous in Australia, so “true urban explorer”s may have trouble avoiding them.

  • Cowicide

    #1 posted by eclectro, “… it’s being turned into a friggin’ resort … ”

    Fuck, eclectro… don’t you know anything? This was shot just behind that neighborhood HBO shot Weeds at.

    I think they are calling it Weedsland or some shit.

  • Anonymous

    According to Wikipedia they are shooting some of the new Wolverine movie there…my guess is the old factories are being used as the secret military labs where his skeletal alterations were done.

  • pinehead

    @28
    That’s just what I thought, upon seeing the image in this post. I could make some lovely furniture, cabinets, clock cases and such with that old lumber.

    But the pics are amazing. It reminds me a bit of those old man-made islands off the coast of Japan; whole towns just slowly rotting into nothing. So many resources just waiting to be repurposed, but they never will.

  • yodelin cowgirl

    I think these photographs are truly amazing! Clearly there is a style being evoked here and from my perspective it has been achieved with brilliance. These are very stirring and interesting images – obviously the artist has an exceptional eye for detail, as well as a vision for what he wanted to get out of the island experience. For me, these photographs throw up a lot of questions about abandonment and loss. Really, really fascinated by the HDR process. Would love to see these hanging on a wall.

  • Thowe

    If you use HDR to make a picture look like the image the human eye sees, great! If not, just stop doing HDR.

    Please, think of the puppys!

  • thekevinmonster

    I really don’t wanna rain on the photog’s parade, but I would like to see a non-tonemapped version of these pics. If I want to see industrial decay that looks like those pics in their tonemapped-out glory, I’ll go play Gears of War.

  • NormanDog

    If you back track through his website you’ll find he also photographed everything he ate for a whole year.

  • Xopher

    Okathleen, we don’t do sigs here. Your website address is (correctly) in your profile; please don’t put it in each comment.

  • Cowicide

    Personally, I think the shots are surreal and kick ass and the photo above has great composition. The naysayers in here seem to me, frankly… artless. More worried about the “trends” than the pure aesthetics of the photos (a.k.a., art) in question.

    I don’t care if it’s a high definition tilt-shift high dynamic range whatchamashit. If it looks great, I’m into it.

  • Xopher

    Hewn. Please don’t weaken strong verbs, o my brothers!

  • Takuan
  • robulus

    Yeah I really hate the way those impressionists painted everything all blurry too.

  • corvi42

    This looks like a Half-Life level.

  • freshyill

    UGH, HDR. Show me a real photo. Let’s do some tilt-shift steampunk garbage while we’re creating abominations.

  • Johan Larson

    Another funky old industrial area. Surely the condo developers are circling?

  • JJ

    HDR technology can be a useful tool as a step in an image’s development, but when it appears to be the only step it’s more of a tribute to the tool than the photographer.

  • Anonymous

    Awesome! This is another site of “ancient” places

    http://www.oboylephoto.com/ruins/index.htm

  • Cowicide

    @#34 POSTED BY Takuan

    Hahaha… awesome.

  • buddy66

    I’m no shutterbug but I studied pictorial composition for years. This cat’s got a good eye.

  • Anonymous

    Stunning pics. Interesting process too. Had a flick through his other stuff and it is very cool. Love, love, love the food pics. This is clearly someone to watch as his talent develops even more.

  • El Stinko

    I am generally pretty critical of aggressive HDR, but usually it’s because the photographer is trying to simulate reality, but it’s a reality based on unintentional artificiality. But in the way this photographer is using it I think it’s justified. He’s intentionally using it in an aggressive way to create a hyper-reality. He’s not to replicate reality, he’s trying to create an interpretation that goes beyond what he saw. Of course, it doesn’t work in every shot, but when it does work it’s pretty cool.

  • Lab Monkey

    In true Sydney style there is a cafe on the island that serves a decent flat white.

  • DefMech

    Count me into the HDR-haters. It’s an overdone gimmick and really tiresome at this point. Some of them aren’t *that* bad and actually manage to look okay and not distracting. Other than that, I went through each photograph trying to figure out what the place actually looked like underneath all that post. It’s a shame, because the location looks awesome! I love the huge yellow metal press.

  • mdh

    To see a world in a grain of sand,
    And a heaven in a wild flower,
    Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
    And eternity in an hour.

    nice.

    I see life-sized Lincoln Logs

  • Takuan

    hewn, lovely work. Looks like a great place to shoot a movie. I wonder what lives in the wood-piles? Knowing Australia, something venomous?

  • Takuan

    all credit to Modus in #21 of course

  • Modusoperandi

    I remember picking up my buggy with that crane. Then the antlions got me :(

  • avraamov

    #28 posted by garyb50:

    a lifetime’s supply!

    i’ll bet it’s all teak cut down by indentured sarawak aboriginals as well. and dragged to australia by slave dolphins.

  • Modusoperandi

    Takuan “I wonder what lives in the wood-piles? Knowing Australia, something venomous?”
    Nine out of the world’s ten most poisonous species of abandoned wood piles come from Australia. The giligaloo, a marsupial wood pile, carries enough poison in it’s heel spurs to kill eleven grown men.

  • tecgirl

    some great shots yet totally unnecessarily over-processed.

  • arkizzle

    Modus, yep, and woodpiles breed like rabbits too.

  • arkizzle

    Lots of overly negative comments in this thread.. or the tones at least.

    Nice pictures.

  • Modusoperandi

    “Always with the negative waves Moriarty, ALWAYS with the negative waves!” ~ Oddball

  • idontwant2liveinoprahsworld

    The photos are nice and “arty”.

    I prefer industrial decay to be photographed just with the naked light of a summer day. Mostly that’s because that was my experience as I passed by on my bicycle.
    Usually there was a bit of refuse unrelated to the sites original purpose like pieces of duct, abandoned cars, etc.

    er…and I don’t know why a duct.(sorry I couldn’t resist)