Student Life

Max Dupain at the University of Sydney 

This photographic exhibition introduces Dupain’s modernist approach to photography in a brilliant and frequently hilarious series of candid shots.

Overview

The Australian modernist photographer Max Dupain (1911-1992) documented student life at the University in the early 1950s in a brilliant and frequently hilarious series of candid shots. They show the range of student cultures and interests in the immediate postwar years.

The exhibition introduces Dupain’s modernist approach to photography which combines formal architectural backdrops with candid documentary studies of student life.

One series displays the student floats on which they performed and demonstrated major issues of the day. The Petrov affair inspired one of the floats in 1954, another includes anti-bomb demonstrations.

'Student Life: Max Dupain', 2024, Chau Chak Wing Museum. Photo by Fiona Wolf.

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A person walks by framed black and white photograph by Max Dupain. Link

Curator
Ann Stephen

Exhibition Manager
Luke Parker

Designer
Catseye Bay

Details

When

Open seven days a week
Mon - Fri: 10am - 5pm
Sat - Sun: 12 - 4pm

Please note: The Chau Chak Wing Museum is closed from 5pm Friday 20 December 2024 and will reopen at 10am Tuesday 7 January, 2025.

Exhibition closes 2 February 2026

Location

Level 4 Mezzanine
Chau Chak Wing Museum

Cost

Free

Images: Max Dupain, silver gelatin print, gift of Diana Dupain, 1951, reproduced courtesy of Chau Chak Wing Museum

 

Get
in touch

Contact us

Phone: +61 2 93512812

Email: ccwm.info@sydney.edu.au

Chau Chak Wing Museum
University Place
Camperdown NSW 2050

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