'Without light there is no photography.  It is the inspiration and life-giver to the photographic image'          Max Dupain 1988

Dupain began life, lived and died in Sydney. Throughout his life he travelled overseas rarely and within Australia only when there were commissioned photographs to be taken. As a result there are hundred of negatives in the Exhibition Negative Archive, beginning in the late 1930s, documenting our Australian cities, mainly Sydney.

He was fascinated, not only with the streets and the bustling commuters but also with the architecture. The ever-changing Sydney skyline and streetscape is there in these negatives, over fifty years of our history. The images here reflect a quieter, smaller city than the present one although one of Dupain's favourite man-made features, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, still occupies the city's centre of attention.

Dupain's first motivation in sizing up a photograph was the position of the light, choosing the best part of the day to give the picture the drama for which he became known. Also the viewpoint - often the 'birds-eye' perspective with low raking light. The images shown below are but a minute selection from the Archive, many more can be seen in the publication, Dupain's Sydney published by Chapter & Verse in 1999. See the Books section.