Re-visiting the mark of modernist photographer Max Dupain
Bianca Couchman
Max Dupain was a modernist photographer. Not a photographer, but a modernist photographer. He had the ability to embody the elements of the modern era, such as utilitarianism and the acceleration of metropolitan growth, and transfer them fluidly to the photographic realm. He had a truly rounded engagement with the modern era as it flowed into his photographic philosophy, his undoubtedly modern aesthetic, and his collaboration with modern architects. The photographs displayed in the exhibition Max Dupain: The Paris ‘private’ series and other pictures at the Art Gallery of New South Wales are not only representative of this era, but also of the man himself.
As a photographer, Dupain was true to his philosophies and brought them to each subject he photographed in the modern utopia. He summarised his photographic practice in two words: simplicity and directness. His statement is objective, to the point, and rid of any pretentious artspeak. Within his images, great attention is given to each line, curve, texture and tone, and how they conform to devise forms and fields in the composition. This approach was a clear departure from the pictorialist images of Oscar Rejlander, Henry Peach Robinson and Peter Henry Emerson, considering Dupain believed that photographic aesthetic was, “neither as a substitute for nor as a near relation of art”. During the early 1930s, Dupain finally found the aesthetic that could truly represent his simple and direct approach to his subjects, and depict the harsh reality of the late industrial revolution.
Dupain’s modernist aesthetic was employed and developed based on the emerging and progressive ideas of a new aesthetic occurring throughout Europe and the United States during the 1920s; just in time for the most important years of Dupain’s career. Although young and relatively new to the photographic scene, Dupain developed unconventional images such as Pyrmont Silos, 1933, and a host of other similar images. These were the first images he created as a shift toward a more, ‘nakedly confronting’ aesthetic. The photographs were raw, hard-lined, and challenged traditional notions of perspective. Dupain was therefore even further immersed and engaged in the modern era as it flowed into his photographic practice.
Seduced by architectural photography during the 1950s, Dupain secured a number of commissions from architects, including a four-decade collaboration with Harry Seidler. This led him to integrate the two separate creative entities of photography and architecture. For both Dupain and Seidler, the relationship between art and architecture was hopelessly intertwined; it was art magnified, like a giant still life. Dupain’s images throughout this collaboration contained buildings that not only appeared as the modern structures of the age, but also broken fields of texture and tone from alternative viewpoints; evidence of his modern photographic aesthetic. This collaboration held fast to its modern ideals, however it was also an exceptional step in the development of modern photography and architecture, and allowed Dupain to further engage himself with other modernists.
In addition to coalescing his passions for photography and architecture, Dupain also saw a strong connection between photography and poetry. Lines from one of Dupain’s favourite quotable poems, Auguries of Innocence by William Blake, evidences the connection between poetry and his photographic practice:
“To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower”.
When photographing, Dupain could see his ideas and concepts through one eye, and the physical world through another. He brought these together to develop simple and direct images that were truly representative of the modern era.
Max Dupain was therefore more than a modernist photographer. What Dupain saw better than any of his contemporaries was the relationship that existed between his photographic philosophy and the modern context. The images of this exhibition are not only a testament to the images he created whilst in Paris, they are also a testament to a photographer who was authentic and sincere to his philosophies and brought them to each photographic opportunity.
Max Dupain, Pyrmont Silos, 1978, gelatin silver photograph, 35.6 x 30.4 cm 1933 (Printed later)/ Image courtesy of the artist and The Art Gallery of NSW
