Picturing the hospital in 2020-2021.
Documentary photographer Catharine Neilson was commissioned by NSW Health Infrastructure to photograph Maitland Hospital at work during its last eighteen months on its High Street site. She photographed people, places, events, objects, details.
Her photographs are used throughout the hospital stories. Put her name in the search field at the top right of this page to locate them.
Some of the photographs were included in the exhibition A Conspicuous Object - The Maitland Hospital at the Maitland Regional Art Gallery, 16 October 2021 to 6 February 2022.
A small number of the photographs are on the walls of the new Maitland Hospital at Metford.
All the photographs are now part of the Maitland Hospital Collection and, as such, provide a rich and permanent record of the hospital as it was in 2020/2021.
Below is a very small sample of Catharine’s photographs of Maitland Hospital in 2020-2021.
People
First and foremost, the hospital is about people – patients, staff, volunteers, visitors, community members. Semi-formal portraits of individuals and groups smiling at the camera sit next to images of people at work, relaxing, getting food, talking.
Places and spaces
Walking through and around Maitland Hospital offered encounters with buildings and spaces from different times. The history of the place echoes in the different architectural styles and features, and in the discoveries of where and how spaces have been adapted, closed in, altered or even left alone.
Things and details
Medical equipment, furniture, catering items, maintenance tools, uniforms, art works, signs, architectural features. There are so many things and details throughout the hospital that tell stories as well as offer imagery that is arresting, aesthetically pleasing, at times calming and often almost abstract.
