Three things matter to me as far as photography is concerned: light, optics and the chemical follow up — but light is the vital part. I adore it.

(MD, ABC Radio tape, 183)

Dupain was never a ‘snap-shooter’. His informed understanding of light, form and subject precluded any casual approach. His was a deliberate ‘art’ — despite personal reluctance to apply the term to his own work. In later life he referred to his surreal works of the 30’s as ‘arty crap’.

‘Style’ was also a term he disliked. Early in his career he dismissed the soft toned romanticism of Pictorialism. Dupain’s vision and output was always that of a modernist.

This talk recognises his photographic excellence whether the subject was:

- Still life studies

- The street

- The human condition in all its diversity

- The natural Australian landscape

- Industry

- architecture – historic or contemporary