A Photographic Story

This post is not a food related one - but interesting none the less. It’s a story of my family’s connection with two of Australia’s most influential photographers, Max Dupain and Olive Cotton.

In Sydney in 2026 there are two wonderful photographic exhibitions: Definitive Dupain at the State Library of NSW and Olive Cotton and Her Contemoraries at the SH Ervin Gallery.

Each exhibition celebrates the work of Max Dupain and Olive Cotton, long time colleagues and at one time, husband and wife, whose black and white photographic style is evocative and arresting capturing the play of light on subjects. Both photographers produced many portraits in their work.

So the family connection is this.

In the 1940s my mother, Joyce Scarlett, commissioned Olive Cotton to photograph her daughter Anthea, my older sister. Olive was managing Max’s studio in Sydney at the time, while he was away during World War Two.

These wonderful portrait photos of a 4 year old Anthea were taken in the Botanic Gardens Sydney, on a lovely day, most probably in 1944. My mother is pictured with her daughter in some photos.

The photos are joyous, delightful, candid images of a little girl playing happily in the Gardens.

42 years later, another set of photos were commissioned by Joyce Scarlett, this time photos of me in 1986, at the age of 32.

Jill White was the photographer. Jill White worked at the Dupain Photographic Studio, with Max Dupain for around 25 years, where she learnt the art of monochrome photography.

Jill’s black and white photos, which she took of me, at home in McMahons Point in Sydney, are evocative and artful, although the subject is somewhat more self aware than her sister in those earlier photos!

Both sets of photos reference the studios from which they were produced: Max Dupain Studio 49 Clarence Street for my sister’s 1944 photos, and Max Dupain and Associates Campbell Street Artarmon for mine.

1944 to 1986, and a family connection with Max Dupain, and the wonderful photographers Olive Cotton and Jill White.

These photos are special to me, and I hope you find them interesting as well.