Olive Cotton is recognised as one of the pioneers of modernist photography in Australia. She worked at Max Dupain’s Bond Street studio from 1934 to 1940. During this time she produced some of her best-known photographs. Her subjects ranged from nature to the built environment, as well as still-life and portraiture. She photographed Dupain often, and made this portrait at their home in Longueville, Sydney. It is a warm photograph of Dupain who is shown in a casual, relaxed pose with his Rolleiflex TLR camera around his neck. He looks affectionately at the camera, highlighting the close relationship between photographer and sitter who were childhood friends, professional colleagues and married briefly between 1939 and 1941.
2023
Gelatin silver prints are black-and-white photographic prints that have been created using papers coated with an emulsion of gelatin and light-sensitive silver salts. After the papers are briefly exposed to light (usually through a negative), a chemical developer renders the latent image as reduced silver, which is then fixed and washed. This technique was first introduced in the 1870s and is still used today. Most twentieth-century black-and-white photographs are gelatin silver prints. They are known for being highly detailed and sharply defined prints with a distinguishable smooth, even image surface.
