Max Dupain's Violinist rehearsing at the Methodist Ladies’ College in Burwood, Sydney, 1971 [photo courtesy National Archive of Australia]  

Max Dupain - On Assignment - National Archives of Australia, Canberra until June 22

Kerry Baylor - Watson

and

Susan Stayer - Dumbarton Oaks – Huw Davies Gallery, PhotoAccess, Manuka until March 30

Currently showing in Canberra are exhibitions of three distinctive photography collections, and they offer an intriguing survey across the medium, when taken in consecutively over an autumn afternoon!

The largest exhibition Max Dupain - On Assignment, is preceded by the artists’ reputation as one of Australia’s best known photographers, although there is no Sunbaker in sight! Instead the collection covers Dupain’s government commissioned works spanning from the early forties to the late seventies, and the subjects, which literally line the walls of the space are taken from domestic and industrial life.

While Dupain clearly had an agenda to portray post-war Australia in the most flattering light (he was being paid to present an exciting, respectable and desirable national identity, after all) you can see that his view finder was frequently distracted by the architectural details and subtle abstractions which began to subvert his pure documentary style.

The focus shifts from striking dominating figures, often in silhouette (such as Boys playing cricket at the beach, Melbourne, 1946) to a purer use of dark and light (Uploading raw sugar in bags from a vessel alongside Pyrmont Refinery wharf, Sydney, circa 1950s), offering the contrast and simplicity which Dupain became known for.

Dupain’s talent for composition frequently comes into play, and his most impressive images capture an intense, but balanced tension between the foreground and background, such as that seen in the evocative Canberra autumn scene, 1946.

Employing a similar documentary style is Kerry Baylor, whose series titled Watson, is a narrative of the urban landscape she lives in. Baylor works with a self-confessed “point and shoot plastic camera” style and the results are images which convey a momentary and somewhat speedy view of her subjects.

These subjects are the streets, dwellings and residents of Baylor’s community, and she has captured the detachment and anonymity which many of us feel in our own urban environments. In The shops 3, Baylor has snapped Barry, a local identity, but rather than presenting as a portrait study he is as much a part of the landscape as the Porsche parked beside the people-mover and the dog on the bench seating.

Some of the images are distractingly out of focus, but what the series of 16 images lacks in sharpness and clarity it makes up for in eeriness (Majura Rise 1) - Baylor herself states that at times she felt like she “was on the set of a Stephen King movie”. Several of the images also have a beautiful “Kodachrome” quality about them, such as an intense depth of blues in sky backgrounds which adds interest and flavour.

The third of the shows, Dumbarton Oaks by Susan Stayer and also at PhotoAccess is a series of sepia toned images taken in and around the grounds of Dumbarton Oaks in Washington DC. Consisting mainly of studies of architectural elements it has enough detail to engage the viewer in close-up scrutiny and even the depths of the shadowy pockets in the compositions offer little glimmers of light (which I remember a photography lecturer telling me years ago, was a sign of a technically good photograph).

As you may expect, the images have a pervading feel of antiquity and mystery which is enhanced by the focus on the minutiae – overgrown pathways, classical curved staircases and mythical elements all contrive to get us imagining what may lay in wait around the next corner.

Like Dupain, Stayers’ images have a strong architectural focus, and even in the images of trees, they present as grand architectural elements. Similarly, Stayers works share a homage to the built environment with those of Baylor, but it is a very different environment presented in a very different way!

To see more of Baylor and Stayer’s techniques and philosophies go to:
www.oldspoolbetties.blogspot.com or www.photoaccess.org.au