The Heide Museum of Modern Art in Melbourne is presenting a revolutionary new exhibition that pairs the works of two legendary 20th-century photographers for the first time. "Man Ray and Max Dupain" showcases the striking parallels between the American Surrealist pioneer and Australia's modernist master, revealing how both artists explored similar artistic territory despite working on opposite sides of the world without ever meeting.
Man Ray, the influential American expatriate living in Paris during the 1930s, revolutionized visual culture through his pioneering use of Surrealist photography techniques. His groundbreaking modernist approach earned him a place in the first Surrealist exhibition in Paris in 1925, and he became the photographer of choice for cultural icons including Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, and Gertrude Stein. Meanwhile, in Australia, Max Dupain was developing his own modernist vision, culminating in his iconic 1937 photograph "Sunbaker," which captures his friend after a swim at Culburra beach on the NSW south coast.
According to curator Lesley Harding, artistic director at the Heide Museum of Modern Art, the parallels between the two photographers extend far beyond their artistic techniques. Both men experimented extensively with light, form, and abstraction, and both were romantically involved with talented female photographers who significantly influenced their work. Ray's relationship with American photographer Lee Miller proved both personally and professionally transformative, while Dupain's partnership with fellow photographer Olive Cotton, whom he married in 1939, similarly shaped his artistic development.
"There were some startling similarities in the techniques that they used, and they both obviously had a very keen interest in Surrealism at that time," Harding explains. "These are two artists who are operating in isolation on opposite sides of the world – and they didn't know each other, they never met – but are working in the same sorts of ways, applying Surrealist imagery to their commercial photography, publishing in the same international journals and exhibiting in the same international salons for photography."
The exhibition's genesis can be traced back to 2023, when the Heide presented "Surrealist Lee Miller," a solo exhibition of Miller's photography that proved enormously popular with the public. Miller arrived in Paris in 1929 and persuaded Ray to take her on as his assistant despite his initial refusal. "She insisted, and they ended up having a very productive professional relationship, but also a personal relationship – they became lovers," Harding notes. Together, they established solarization – the effect of tone reversal achieved by overexposing photographic film – as a signature technique of modernist photography, creating images with a distinctive ghost-like or ethereal appearance.
Dupain's awareness of Surrealism came through international periodicals such as Modern Photography, which published two photographs by Ray, including a solarized portrait of Miller, in a 1931 edition. In 1935, Sydney publisher Sydney Ure Smith commissioned the young Australian photographer to review Ray's newly published survey "Man Ray Photographs, 1920-1934." Dupain, who was 20 years Ray's junior, wrote what Harding describes as a "very insightful and very thoughtful review of Man Ray's work." He later told his biographer Helen Ennis that Ray appealed to him because he was a "radical" who "didn't give a stuff for his contemporaries or his peers – he went ahead and did what he had to do."
This encounter with Ray's work marked a turning point in Dupain's artistic development. Until then, his photography had been grounded in Pictorialism, the prevailing Australian photographic style characterized by painterly, often otherworldly landscape images largely influenced by English movements. After reviewing Ray's book, Dupain began incorporating techniques he had observed in international journals, applying methods heavily adopted by Ray to both his artistic and commercial work. These innovations included cropping, framing, solarization, photomontage, and photograms – photographic images created without a camera.
The exhibition's unique approach of presenting the photographers' work side-by-side has produced remarkable results. "The feedback we've had from visitors is that sometimes it's really hard to tell – you have to look at the label to figure out whether it's a Max Dupain work or a Man Ray," Harding reveals. This striking similarity extends to their personal relationships as well. Just as Miller significantly influenced Ray's work, Cotton played a crucial role in Dupain's photographic development. The pair were teenage sweethearts who spent summer holidays photographing together with their Kodak Box Brownies and both joined the Photographic Society of NSW in 1929.
When Dupain opened his studio in 1934, Cotton joined him as his assistant, though she also developed her own sophisticated modernist practice during this period. "It speaks a lot to the times – that he was the master photographer and she was [his junior], helping out and doing a lot of administration," Harding observes. "She used the studio, particularly in the 1930s and early 40s, for creating these very interesting, very sophisticated modernist images that have a life of their own and aren't necessarily in a direct relationship to Max's work – they've got a different sensibility about them." The exhibition includes a dedicated room presenting work by both couples – Dupain and Cotton alongside Ray and Miller – highlighting their collaborative creative processes.
By the end of the 1930s, Dupain had established both a successful commercial photography practice with clients including David Jones and a reputation as a leading modernist photographer. However, everything changed with World War II. In 1941, Dupain joined the Royal Australian Air Force as a camoufleur, designing and building camouflage installations while stationed in northern Australia and Papua New Guinea. The same year, he and Cotton separated, though they remained on good terms, with Cotton managing the studio in his absence.
Upon returning to civilian life, Dupain's photographic approach underwent a dramatic transformation. "He turned his back on the more modernist, experimental work and focused more on documentary-style photography," Harding explains. As his reputation grew during the postwar period, his earlier Surrealist work gradually faded from public memory. "It wasn't until later, when curators like Gael Newtown and Helen Ennis started doing surveys of Max's work in the 70s, that a lot of this early imagery was brought to public attention. It had been forgotten in many ways," Harding notes.
Harding hopes this groundbreaking exhibition will deepen public appreciation of Dupain's remarkable versatility as a photographer while simultaneously challenging perceptions about Australian art's place on the international stage. "Dupain had this amazing experimental body of work that became a scaffold for his later success," she emphasizes. The exhibition also serves to dispel what Harding calls Australia's "tall poppy syndrome," where people assume international art must be superior to local work. "I hope people can appreciate that people like Max and Olive were working at the top of their field and in parallel with others internationally," she states.
"Man Ray and Max Dupain" runs until November 9 at the Heide Museum of Modern Art in Melbourne, offering visitors a unique opportunity to witness how two masters of 20th-century photography, separated by continents and circumstances, developed remarkably similar artistic visions that continue to influence visual culture today.
