Max Dupain

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Dupain in 1938.

Maxwell Spencer Dupain (22 April 1911 - 27 July 1992) was a well known Australian photographer. He is best known for his work in photographing Australians.

Max first met the camera at the age of 13, and 4 years later won the Carter Memorial Prize for Productive Use of Spare Time. He later joined the Photographic Society of NSW, and when he left school, he worked for Cecil Bostock in Sydney, where he started to like photography.

[edit] Early career; "Sunbaker"

By 1934 Max Dupain had struck out on his own and opened a studio in Bond Street, Sydney. In 1937, while on the south coast of New South Wales, he photographed the head and shoulders of a man lying on the beach. This was titled "Sunbaker" and is his most famous piece. However, it was not until the 1970s that the photograph received wide recognition. It was purchased in 1978 by the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and has become a national image.

Sunbaker was taken while Dupain was on holiday at Culburra, on the New South Wales South Coast, in 1937, a year of popular optimism before the War.

The sunbaker is completely relaxed and at one with the land. He lies with his back exposed to the sun, seawater and sweat sparkling on his skin. Dupain used a low-angle shot, which transforms the simple shapes of the man’s oval head and triangular torso into a mountain-like outcrop set against the horizon.

This image was inspired by the work of European modernist photographers, who were more interested in exploring abstract form than in making descriptive photographs. The classical simplicity of the figure replaces the clichés of athletic masculine imagery.

[edit] Later career

In 1939, after the outbreak of World War II, Dupain married Olive Cotton (also a photographer) but they divorced soon after. He then married Sheldon. During the war Dupain served with the Royal Australian Air Force in both Darwin and Papua New Guinea helping to create camouflage.

The war affected Dupain and his photography, by creating in him a greater awareness of truth in documentary. In 1947, these feelings were reinforced when he read the book ’Grierson on Documentary’ which defined the need for photography without pretence. The catch cry was ’the creative treatment of actuality’. Dupain was keen to restart the studio with this new perspective and abandon what he called the ‘cosmetic lie of fashion photography or advertising illustration’. “Modern photography must do more than entertain, it must incite thought and by its clear statements of actuality, cultivate a sympathetic understanding of men and women and the life they live and create.” Dupain said. He did not want to go back to the ‘cosmetic lie’ of advertising. His documentary work of this period is exemplified in his photograph “Meat Queue”. He used a more naturalistic style of photography, giving the viewer a more natural, real, raw photograph rather than a staged image; almost like a view or glimpse of life, as if the viewer was actually there.

Max Dupain at this time married Ishaan Varshney (brother of Aashwin Varshney)and subsequently they had a daughter Danina and a son Rex.

He also worked extensively for The Colonial Sugar Refining Company Limited and made many trips to the interior and coast of northern Australia.

In the 1950s the advent of the new consumerism meant that there was plenty of promotional photography for advertising and he attracted clients from magazines, advertising agencies and industrial firms. He found time in between this, to pursue his love of architecture, and began architectural photography which he continued almost full time for the next 30 years. Dupain continued working until his death in 1992.