Max DUPAIN: Melbourne with rain

2026 MAPh Photography Fair

Max DUPAIN
Australia 1911–92
Melbourne with rain 1946
28.5 x 22.7cm
courtesy of the Estate of Max Dupain
From a limited edition print set for MAPh's 30th anniversary, edition of 7

Max Dupain (1911-1992)

Max Dupain was Australia’s most respected and influential black & white photographer of the 20th century. His images capture a long gone era in which Australian society was vastly different from what it is now. With his modernist and documentary orientation to photography, his images demonstrate Dupain’s mastership of light and form.

Dupain was considered the pioneer of modernism in Australian photography, an approach that departed from the sentimentality of soft focused, nostalgic imagery to the simplified world of light contrasts, sharp focus, varying angles and creative compositions, of which Melbourne with rain is a prime example. This work is held within MAPh's collection and this limited edition print was created to commemorate MAPh's 30th anniversary.

Dupain began his photographic career in 1930 as an apprentice in the studio of Cecil Bostock. In 1934 he established his own studio in Sydney and continued to produce a broad range of commercial work over the course of his life. Dupain is renowned for his architectural photography and his iconic images of Australian beach culture. His experiments with photomontage and photograms during the 1930s are of critical importance to the history of Australian photography. Dupain’s work during World War II (as a civilian photographer) is also of historical significance, marking a shift in his practice away from advertising and fashion toward social documentary.