Max Dupain retrospective reveals photographer’s evolving vision
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In Sydney, the State Library of New South Wales is hosting a retrospective of nearly 200 prints by photographer Max Dupain.
Curator Avryl Whitnall assembled the exhibition from the library’s archive of 250,000 of Dupain’s negatives over five years. The show presents Dupain’s work chronologically, alongside his cameras and tools, and features digital displays of his processing techniques.
The exhibition includes early works showing the influence of European photographers on Dupain’s style, as well as photographs capturing post-war life in Australia, such as Meat Queue from 1946, which depicts women waiting in line for rations. Alongside these, Dupain’s beach photos and nude studies are shown, prompting consideration of how they relate to contemporary issues of identity and representation.
The retrospective also reveals lesser-known works, like a handmade book containing a photograph of a baby, and acknowledges problematic imagery from Dupain’s time in Papua New Guinea that are not included in the exhibition. The show runs until July 18, 2027, and aims to present a comprehensive view of Dupain’s career, though a critic questions why it doesn’t place his work in conversation with the artists who followed him.
