SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA.- Striking new angles are revealed when many rarely seen Max Dupain photographs go on display at the free exhibition Max Dupain – Modernist, State Library of NSW from 9 June to 23 September 2007. Dupain famously captured a dramatic new vision as he created art out of buildings and upset the pictorial style of the day with his iconic photograph Wheat Silos (1933) – which is as famous in photographic circles as the equally revered Sunbaker is to modern Australia.

With its harsh lines and awkward angle, Wheat Silos was ground-breaking and launched the Australian photographer’s career in the stylistic world of ‘modernist’ architectural photography.

Max Dupain – Modernist celebrates the photographer’s enduring contribution to the modernist movement via 165 striking, black and white, and colour photographs - many rarely seen before - of modern Australian architecture by the likes of Seidler, Utzon, Murcutt, Cox, Ancher, Buhrich, J.D. Moore (photographer David Moore’s father) and others.

“Architecture was Max’s big love and first career choice,” says State Library of NSW exhibition curator, Avryl Whitnall. “His eye for this ‘new photography’ with its wacky angles and strong contrasts made his photographs of many Sulman award-winning designs more famous than the buildings themselves.”

Visitors to the exhibition can see work spanning 50 years from Dupain’s studio that first opened for business in 1934. Dupain’s own commentary will be used throughout the exhibition and comments by architects on his photography will provide a fascinating depth to this must-see show.

The exhibition will also include a showcase gallery featuring 27 Dupain masterpieces in the modernist style including Sunbaker, Jean with wire mesh and Bondi, 1939. The photographs on show are drawn from the archives of Max Dupain & Associates courtesy of Eric Sierins, and the Max Dupain Exhibition Negative Archive courtesy of Jill White.