Max DuPain

Photographer

• Born: April 4, 1911
• Birthplace: Ashfield, Sydney, Australia
• Died: July 27, 1992
• Place of death: Sydney, Australia

Also known as: Maxwell Spencer Dupain

Significance: Max Dupain was one of the most dominant figures in Australian photography. His photography spanned a wide range of areas, including architecture, celebrities and travel and leisure. He is best known for his internationally recognised "Sunbaker at Bondi" (1937), which became one the country's most reproduced photographs. Dupain, over the course of his fifty-eight-year career, took hundreds of thousands of photographs, most of which focused on his home of Sydney.

Background

Max Dupain was born in Ashfield, Sydney. At the age of thirteen, he received his first camera (a Kodak Box Brownie), which represented the start of his photographic career. Within a few years, while still attending grammar school, he won his first award—the Carter Memorial Prize for Productive Use of Spare Time. Dupain attended East Sydney Technical College and, from 1933 to 1935, Sydney's Julian Ashton Art School.

Following art school, Dupain began an apprenticeship with Cecil Bostock, one of the country's leading photographers. Under Bostock's tutelage, Dupain learned the discipline and attention to detail that would later be evident in his own works. He developed particular skill in the increasingly popular modernist genre of photography, using a wide range of photographic media and producing some of his most well-known works out of his studio in Sydney. During World War II, Dupain was recruited to work for the Royal Army's camouflage unit.

Artistic Career

Max Dupain's career spanned nearly sixty years, during which he demonstrated considerable prowess in capturing images of the people and developments of the modern era. Shortly after he completed his apprenticeship with Cecil Bostock, Dupain produced the work for which he would become best known, both throughout Australia and around the globe. While on a camping trip at Culburra Beach with his friend, Harold Salvage, Dupain photographed Salvage shortly after the latter had exited the water and lain down in the sand. Dupain named the impromptu photo "Sunbaker at Bondi". Although the photograph was not widely published or reproduced at the time, it was chosen by the Australian Centre for Photography in 1975 to grace that institution's annual poster. It has since been reproduced hundreds of times and is seen as an iconic photo that is emblematic of the Australian way of life.

Much of Dupain's work around the same time as "Sunbaker" had a similar theme. Dupain embraced the school known as "vitalism", which holds that a vital force exists within all living things. Dupain focused his attention on the beach and beachgoers' bodies as examples of this vital force. Meanwhile, Dupain developed an interest in a similar arena: documentary photography. Dupain used people and their surroundings to tell a story while working for the army during the war, and used it again in the later 1940s while under the employ of the Department of Information. His photos, such as 1946s "Meat Queue", showed the carefree everyday lives of Australians for the department, which used these "storytelling" images to promote immigration to Australia.

Dupain continued to use his documentary approach for a diverse group of clients, including government agencies, advertising companies, celebrities and others. During the 1960s, however, Dupain again diversified his photographic repertoire, dedicating some of his lens time to shooting Australia's modern, historical and industrial architecture. Among his most prolific subjects were the buildings designed by prominent Australian architect Harry Seidler. Finding quick success in this arena, Dupain was commissioned by the National Trust of Australia to document the many of the country's historical landmarks. He also spent hundreds of hours photographing some of the country's more modern structures, including the National Library and the Sydney Opera House.

In 1975, Dupain's works were compiled in a comprehensive review, Max Dupain—A Retrospective 1930–1975. The cover featured his iconic "Sunbaker". In 1982 Dupain was awarded the Order of the British Empire, recognising his work documenting the people and buildings of Australia. During the 1980s, two more extensive collections of his prolific career were released. He continued working until his death in 1992.

Impact

Throughout his six-decade career, Max Dupain captured and shared a vast array of photographic images of Australia and its people, structures and way of life. Although celebrated internationally for the vitalist "Sunbaker", most of his honours were in recognition of his documentary works. Dupain is credited with creating images of Australia's modernity and history alike. After his death, his collective works were bequeathed to his longtime assistant, Jill White, who continues to publish and exhibit his extensive works.

Personal Life

Max Dupain was twice married. With his second wife, Diana Illingworth, he had a daughter, Danina, and a son, Rex. He lived and worked in the Sydney area until his death.

Bibliography

Crerar, Simon. "A National Icon: Max Dupain's Sunbaker, Australia's Most-Famous Photograph." The Australian, 27 July 2012, www.theaustralian.com.au/archive/travel-old/max-dupain-sunbaker/news-story/51ef618522b343998cc054214b342758. Accessed 3 Nov. 2017.

"Max Dupain." Australian Government, 7 May 2016, www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/max-dupain. Accessed 3 Nov. 2017.

"Max Dupain Biography." The Arts Council, www.theartscouncil.org/artists/max-dupain/. Accessed 3 Nov. 2017.

Ride, Peter. "Obituary: Max Dupain." The Independent, 31 July 1992, www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-max-dupain-1537229.html. Accessed 3 Nov. 2017.

Vashistha, Neha. "Max Dupain: The Pioneer of Modernism in Australian Photography." SHURUA(R)T, 21 Apr. 2017, www.shuru-art.com/blogs/news/max-dupain-the-pioneer-of-modernism-in-australian-photography. Accessed 3 Nov. 2017.