# Max Dupain



## vonnagy (Feb 4, 2005)

i can't really think of a discussion for Max Dupain, he's an aussie photog whose work I've discovered just recently (Sitting in the lounge reading an aussie reader digest whilst my car was getting a W.O.F. today). I did a search on his work an I really dig his style. Just thought i'd share:






Clem Seale and Robert Emerson Curtis, New Guinea 1945

googlised max dupain image search:
http://images.google.com/images?q="max dupain"&hl=en&lr=&sa=N&tab=wi

read more about 'im:
http://www.portrait.gov.au/content/exhibit/dupain/vintage.htm



> Max Dupain put his lack of clannishness down to a temperament which inclined to the stoic and an early life as an only child. He relished the solitude of his darkroom, familiar places and routines and the early morning calm of Sydney Harbour where he rowed his scull until curtailed by ill health in the early 1990s.....


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## minew_m (Feb 5, 2005)

I never heard of Max Dupain until now.  I really love his work.  I'm still looking through his photos now.  I too love his style.  He brings an interesting twist to his photos. Thanks for sharing!


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## Floyd (Feb 5, 2005)

'The Sunbaker' woul by far be his most famous work it was recently palyed on smartly by some woman who's name escapes me she did a colour painting with a fair skinned red headed woman in the pose as comment on skin cancer and vulnerability as against the machismo of 'The Sunbaker'.  Dupain was not a white supremacist but he was a darwinist in the same sense as Jack London, so far as that he did believe in stronger races and stronger types of people which is what his images were trying to put forth the idea of a healthy fit outdoors family unit.  A lot of people mistakenly compaer him to Leni Riefenstahl which is wrong he came from the same approach as people like Ansell Adams or Edward Weston in the medium/large format high precision work.  Like Weston photography is a family tradition and his son Rex Dupain keeps the family name alive basically aping his fathers work but sometimes he'll do something of note.


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## vonnagy (Feb 11, 2005)

thanks for the info Floyd


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## lunamaria-camaro (Apr 3, 2008)

Just thought i would mention her names Anne Zahalka, Personally I dislike her work with a passion, but I could never imagine using another persons idea and claming it as my own, even changed just a little the other persons Basic idea is still there. 
Anne Zahalka uses other peoples work to gain fame, most of her work is copied off another famous artist, ranging from painter to photographers! 
As mention above she took of max dupains work, it was literally a mirror of his. If you look at the 2 side by side you can see how she used max dupains work, she makes photos that will jump on sombody else's fame just so she can get her name up with theirs! that annoys the hell out of me!


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## bob111 (Aug 4, 2008)

Hi there, I have also recently come across some of his work, 

Does anybody know what the title of this photo is? and is it of the Melbourne or a war memorial?


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## MillieM00 (Oct 17, 2009)

lunamaria-camaro said:


> Just thought i would mention her names Anne Zahalka, Personally I dislike her work with a passion, but I could never imagine using another persons idea and claming it as my own, even changed just a little the other persons Basic idea is still there.
> Anne Zahalka uses other peoples work to gain fame, most of her work is copied off another famous artist, ranging from painter to photographers!
> As mention above she took of max dupains work, it was literally a mirror of his. If you look at the 2 side by side you can see how she used max dupains work, she makes photos that will jump on sombody else's fame just so she can get her name up with theirs! that annoys the hell out of me!



It is cool if you don't like another artist and certainly fine if appropriating another's artists work goes against your own artistic ethics. Personally i dont appropriate another's work BUT when it is done well and for the right reasons it is a very effective tool. However i think that you should do some more research on Anne Zahalka, her body of work and the reasons that she uses appropriation within SOME of her work.

In the case of the Max Dupain shots titled "Sunbaker" she was making a comment of the iconic archetypes that have become entrenched within Australian Culture - for example the athletic white male in this picture. This is why her picture has an androgynous person with red hair and freckles, these are not qualities that we would traditionally associate with athleticism. The image is a mirror construction so that she can make a direct observation and challenge the issue. 

Not to come on here ranting but i think that if you are to come onto a public forum ranting and accusing a fellow artist of plagiarising work in order to become successful you should double check basic facts.


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