Vintage ‘William Eggleston Portraits’ at the NGV.


The Sunbaker we know was conceived on Culburra Beach near Nowra in 1937, during the camping trip of a bunch of friends from Sydney who were all twenty-something years old and brimming with sex. Ure Smith Pty Ltd, Sydney 1948, Basser Steps with Basser College in background, October – November 1967. Max Dupain (1911 – 1992) is one of the leading figures of 20th-century Australian photography. Dupain has emphasised the geometric arrangement and industrial materiality of the building and retaining wall, utilising the atmospheric effects of light and shade and formal qualities of line and contrast.

He is renowned for his modernist approach and his photographs of beach culture are among the most iconic images in Australian history. Meat queue 1946 documented a necessary postwar pastime for many Australian women when certain foods were still in short supply. At the time this photograph was taken, the Robert Heffron building (which was still under construction, and is now known as the UNSW Business School) was to be the biggest and most well equipped building on campus, a tribute to Robert Heffron, who was pivotal in the establishment and development of UNSW. From 1955, a library was located on the Kensington campus, housed in various locations before finding a permanent home. Alongside his art photography, Dupain primarily worked as a commercial architecture photographer – but his artistic vision was always present. I left the ACP in June of 1975 and David Moore completed Max’s exhibition calling for many new enlargements against my choice of smaller vintage prints that I had laid aside in the studio for the show.

After Dupain’s death the Sunbaker continued his apotheosis. He is located. DUPAIN, Diana (Illingworth). A decade after its foundation in 1949, UNSW entered a period of major campus development. Our Sunbaker was born one of twins, a pair of negatives Max Dupain shot of Harold Cyril Salvage — an English bookseller and avid reader, rower and pipe smoker — who, in Dupain’s words, ‘slammed himself down on the beach to have a sunbake’ after a swim. Died March 3, 2012 in her 90th year. Before his death Max Dupain professed to being embarrassed by all the attention it was getting, from jingoistic Australians in general, and from gay couples decorating their new flats in particular. Please contact the Archives if you have material that you think may be of interest.

Slop!
Max Dupain has captured UNSW’s new, purpose-built Library soon after its completion.