What's on in Sydney
Sunbaker, 1937, by Max Dupain

State Library of New South WalesSydney CBD

Definitive Dupain

Now showing24 August 2026 – 18 July 2027Free

A landmark retrospective of Max Dupain's complete body of work, drawn from the Library's archive of over 250,000 negatives and prints.

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One of the early pieces is the original glass negative of The Negative Lady, shot for The Home magazine in April 1934. Nearby, displays show how glass-plate negatives were made and how magnesium flash powder lit a studio, and you can recreate an image yourself.

Max Dupain picked almost 200 of these images and prints himself for magazine and book publishers, and they hang in chronological order with his own words alongside. Sunbaker is here, but so are studio portraits, fashion, advertising, wartime work, solarised experiments, flower, shell and tree series, and unseen photographs of the Sydney Opera House under construction. Curator Avryl Whitnall spent five years in the Library's archive of more than 250,000 negatives and prints finding them.

Entry is free, in the Exhibition Galleries, and open until 8pm on Thursdays. Almost 200 images chosen from 250,000 negatives is a stricter edit than your camera roll.

Editor's pick

A retrospective of Max Dupain's complete body of work, drawn from the Library's archive of more than 250,000 negatives and prints. Free.

Look for

  • The Negative Lady

    The original glass negative made for The Home magazine in April 1934.

  • Camping Album, c1938

    Dupain's personal photographs from camping trips, shown among the intimate work.

  • Opera House under construction

    Photographs of the Sydney Opera House being built that the Library says have not been seen before.

  • Solarised experiments

    Experimental images made with solarisation, a darkroom technique influenced by Man Ray.

  • The negative-making displays

    Multimedia stations on glass-plate negatives and magnesium flash powder, where you can manipulate and recreate an image.

Good for

  • Cheap Culture
  • Going Solo
  • Nerding Out
  • Out-Of-Town Guests

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