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Maxwell Spencer Dupain AC (22 April 1911 – 27 July 1992) Photographer.

Max Dupain

" Per tutta la mia carriera ho cercato di mostrare il significato profondo dei soggetti scelti in modo astratto, dando la mia interpretazione personale".

Maxwell Dupain Spencer è considerato uno dei più grandi fotografi australiani. Nato a Sidney nel 1911, ha studiato alla Sydney Grammar School. A 13 anni gli venne regalata la sua prima macchina fotografica e rapidamente sviluppò un avido interesse per la fotografia. Vinse il  “Carter Memorial Prize for Productive Use of Spare Time” nel 1928 e si unì al NSW Photographic Society un anno dopo. Qui ebbe modo di  incontrare la leggenda della fotografia pittorialista australiana: Harold Cazneaux.

Nel 1930, Dupain iniziò un apprendistato di tre anni con il fotografo Cecil Sydney Bostock, grazie al quale apprese le tecniche della fotografia in studio, la disciplina e la rigorosa attenzione al dettaglio.  Nel 1934, all’età di 23 anni,  Dupain decise di mettersi in proprio e di aprirsi uno studio in  Bond Street. Da qui iniziò una lunga carriera che lo portò ad un grande successo.
Attraverso le sue immagini, Dupain ha sottolineato la semplicità e l’immediatezza dello scatto, creando opere che si caratterizzano per l’audacia del punto di vista, la messa a fuoco nitida e le armoniose composizioni grafiche. Dupain ha fotografato instancabilmente la sua amata terra e, in particolare, Sydney, lasciando una eredità di oltre un milione di fotografie. 

Il suo lavoro è stato raccolto dalle gallerie australiane più importanti e da collezionisti privati di tutto il mondo. Osservò e ritrasse con grande modernità attimi ed emozioni di una nazione, mostrandoci la vita australiana e la “cultura della spiaggia". Altrettanto famosi furono gli scatti architettonici, dalle linee e dalle simmetrie perfette

Anche nel nudo riuscì ad applicare perfettamente la tecnica adoperata per gli interni ed i paesaggi.  Dupain giocava con luce e la forma corporea preferendo portare il soggetto a retrocedere rispetto all’insieme  al fine di esaltarne  mistero e sensualità. 

 
Max dupain 1938

Maxwell Spencer Dupain AC (22 April 1911 – 27 July 1992) was an Australian modernist photographer.

Early life

Dupain received his first camera as a gift in 1924, spurring his interest in photography. He later joined the Photographic Society of NSW, where he was taught by Justin Newlan; after completing his tertiary studies, he worked for Cecil Bostock in Sydney.

Career

Early years

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 friend, Harold Salvage, lying on the sand at Culburra Beach. The image, entitled Sunbaker, subsequently became Dupain's most famous piece.
However, it was not until the 1970s that the photograph received wide recognition. It was purchased in 1976 by the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra and has become a national icon.

Later years

During World War II 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 a book Grierson on Documentary which defined the need for photography without pretence. The catchcry 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". Refusing to return to the "cosmetic lie" of advertising, Dupain said:
"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's documentary work of this period is exemplified in his photograph "Meat Queue". He used a more naturalistic style of photography, "capturing a moment of everyday interaction [rather than] attempting any social comment".
Dupain also worked extensively for the University of New South Wales and CSR Limited and made many trips to the interior and coast of northern Australia. However, apart from his war service he rarely left Australia, the first time not until 1978, when he was 67, and even then it was to photograph the new Australian Embassy in Paris, designed by his longtime friend and associate Harry Seidler. He wrote, "I find that my whole life, if it is going to be of any consequence in photography, has to be devoted to that place where I have been born, reared and worked, thought, philosophised and made pictures to the best of my ability. And that's all I need".
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. In between this he devoted time to pursue his love of architecture, and began architectural photography, which he continued most of his life.

Personal life

In 1939, after the outbreak of World War II, Dupain married Olive Cotton (also a photographer) but they divorced soon after. A decade later, Dupain married Diana Illingworth and subsequently they had a daughter Danina and a son Rex, who also became a photographer.
Dupain was given an OBE in the New Year's honours list, 1981.
Dupain continued working until his death in 1992.

References





  • "Max Dupain". Tristans Gallery. Retrieved 23 February 2010.

  • Max Dupain (1937). "Sunbaker". National Gallery of Australia. Retrieved 25 November 2008.

  • Max Dupain (1946). "Meat Queue". National Gallery of Australia. Retrieved 25 November 2008.

  • O'Farrell, Patrick (1999). "3". UNSW - A Portrait. University of New South Wales Press Ltd. p. 116. ISBN 0-86840-617-1. Retrieved 24 November 2008.

  • Richard Yallop, "The pleasures of Dupain", The Weekend Australian, 23-24 September 2000

  • Sebastian Smee, "On the beach", Good Weekend magazine, Sydney Morning Herald, 21 October 2000

  • "It's an Honour - Honours - Search Australian Honours". It's an Honour. Retrieved 11 June 2016.



  • Bibliography

    For a full list, see
    • Max Dupain’s Australian Landscapes, Mead and Beckett, Australia, 1988.
    • Fine Houses of Sydney, Irving Robert; Kinstler John; Dupain Max, Methuen, Sydney, 1982.
    • Max Dupain Photographs published by Ure Smith, Sydney, 1948.
    Photograph of Olive Cotton at the beach, taken by Max Dupain
    Max Dupain - Portrait of Olive Cotton in the 1930s at the National Library of Australia

    Nude, Cronulla, 1930s

     Sydney Cove from the Sydney Harbour Bridge, 1930s

    Impassioned clay, 1930s

     Nude study, 1930s

    Nude in sunlight, 1930s

     Nude with pole, 1930s

     Nude with wire netting, 1930s

    Mother and child at Cronulla
    1930s

    Spontaneous composition
    1935


    Shattered intimacy
    1936


    Max Dupain: Jean with Wire Mesh 1936

    Valentina Blinova in L'Oiseau de feu [The Firebird], Ballets Russes, Sydney, 1936-1937 / photograph by Max Dupain 

    Max Dupain - Paul Petrov in L'Oiseau de feu [The Firebird, Ballets Russes, Sydney, 1936-1937 / Max Dupain] 

     Max Dupain - Valentina Blinova in L'Oiseau de feu [The Firebird, Ballets Russes, Sydney, 1936-1937 / Max Dupain]

    Igor Youskevitch (Ukrainian Ігор Юшкевич) in Le Carnaval, between 1936–37. Photo by Max Dupain.
    Max Dupain
     
    Sunbaker (1937)
    Max Dupain -Max DUPAIN Australia 1911 - 1992 Sunbaker 1937 gelatin silver photograph image 38.6 x 43.4 cm sheet 52.8 x 55.0 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Accn No: NGA 76.54
    Sunbaker is an iconic photograph by Australian photographer Max Dupain.

     Harold Salvage sunbaking, variant to "The Sunbather" from Camping trips on Culburra Beach by Max Dupain and Olive Cotton 1937
    State Library of New South Wales collection

    Dupain Advertisement for Hoover 1937

     The little nude, 1938

    Emmy Towsey (Taussig) and Evelyn Ippen, Bodenwieser Ballet in Centennial Park, Sydney, ca. 1939 - Max Dupain  

    Nude in grass
    1939


     Bondi, 1939

    Russian ballerina and actress Tamara Toumanova and Ukrainian ballet dancer and choreographer Serge Lifar performing the Swan Lake. between 6 Dec 1936-Aug 1940
    Max Dupain - State Library of New South Wales
    Tatiana Riabouchinska and Roman Jasinsky in Les Dieux mendiants (The Gods go a-begging), between Nov 1938-Aug 1940 photograph by Max Dupain.
     From 1936-1941, three tours by the beautful young dancers of the Russian Ballet astonished Australian audiences with modern dance. Box office records were broken as the theatre was filled every night for long seasons, especially in Sydney and Melbourne. Avant gard photographer Max Dupain, captured them in studio and theatre photographs, and the negatives are held by the State Library of New South Wales. These ballet tours established ballet in Australia and helped to lead to the creation of the Australian Ballet some years after the War. State Library of New South Wales

     :Alison Lee, stage name Helene Lineva and star of the Original Ballet Russe, 1939-1940, posing in the studio, Sydney - photographer Max Dupain 

     Alison Lee, stage name Helene Lineva and star of the Original Ballet Russe, 1939-1940, posing in the studio, Sydney - photographer Max Dupain 

    Rescue & resuscitation I, Manly 1940s

     Group at Bondi, 1940s

    A Barmaid at Work in Wartime Sydney. Petty's Hotel, Sydney, 6pm, 1941. - see Six o'clock swill
    Max Dupain - Caddie: The Barmaid's Story - Dymphna Cusack and Florence James - Australian Government - Commonwealth History Project, supported by funding from the Commonwealth Department of Education, Science & Training
    Photograph of painter William Dobell
    Max Dupain - Portrait of William Dobell 1942 at the National Library of Australia


     Rachel Cameron and Henry Legerton in the Kirsova Ballet Les Sylphides, Max Dupain Studio, Sydney, between 1941-1944 - photographer Max Dupain

    Eleanor Dark, c. 1945 / photographed by Max Dupain
     Eleanor Dark (née O'Reilly) (26 August 1901?11 September 1985) was an Australian author whose novels included Prelude to Christopher (1934) and Return to Coolami (1936), both winners of the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal for literature.

     Photograph of Australian painter Russell Drysdale with some canvases, taken by Max Dupain 1945
    Max Dupain - Russell Drysdale at the National Portrait Gallery
     Adelaide street scene by Dupain (1946)
    Max Dupain  at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level

     Street scene, Brisbane 1946

    St Patrick's cathedral, Melbourne, 1946

     Town Hall, Hobart, 1946
     Photograph of North Terrace in Adelaide, taken by Max Dupain 1947
    Max Dupain - North Terrace, Adelaide at the National Archives of Australia
    Pamela Bromley-Smith, partner of ballet dancer Valentin Zeglovsky, 1947 - Max Dupain  
    State Library of New South Wales collection
       The tug Hero towing Pamir to Sydney Heads. 1947
    Max Dupain - National Library of Australia

    Morning in the Blue Gum Forest, 1950

     Morning mist envelops Harbour Bridge, 1950s

    Rose Seidler House (built 1950) — at Turramurra (now Wahroonga), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Modern Movement house designed by the architect Harry Seidler for his parents, and winner of the Sir John Sulman medal in 1951.
    Photographer Max Dupain; Marcell Seidler (State Library of New South Wales) - Sir John Sulman award winning buildings, 1934-1966 

    At Newport, 1952

     The Jetty, Silver Beach, 1952

    Les Invalides, Paris
    1978

    Portrait of Walter Gropius with Harry Seidler in Sydney at the 1954 RAIA convention.
    Max Dupain - National Library of Australia
    Nuns at Newport Beach, 1960

     Sydney Opera House construction - under stairs 1970

     Sunrise at Newport, 1975

    Les Invalides, Paris
    1978

     
    Souvenir of the Entrance,1976 

    Collins Street, Melbourne

     
    Death by candlelight1989-1991

    Max Dupain

    ...A SUIVRE!

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