An exhibition of the Šechtl & Voseček Museum of Photography
Max Dupain (1911–1992) opened his own photographic studio in Sydney in 1934 and quickly established himself as one of Australia’s leading modernist photographers. The Library catalogues this series as “Job no. 314”, dating from about 1936; the client is unknown. Saturated colours and reflective surfaces were exactly the kind of subjects a new colour process had to handle for advertising photography.
Dufaycolor used an exceptionally fine regular screen of red, green and blue elements that almost disappears at normal viewing distance. Dupain’s still life also works as a practical test of colour rendering: transparent glass with red stripes, a saturated yellow cup and a green notebook quickly reveal errors in colour reproduction.
“Job no. 314” includes, besides studio still lifes, an AWA radio, an orchid and several outdoor views; the catalogue does not identify the client. The variety of subjects suggests that around 1936 Dupain was testing Dufaycolor as a practical material for commercial photography, not merely as a technical novelty.