Photographer Rex Dupain closes ‘Voices of Children’ exhibition

Oct 06, 2005

An international exhibition at the University of Wollongong showcasing children’s photographic images from five different countries received a visit from Rex Dupain last week, son of the famous Australian photographer Max Dupain.

Rex Dupain has continued his father’s legacy by photographing many of the same iconic subjects captured on the eastern seaboard of Australia such as beach culture, street scenes, cityscapes and the overall essence of Sydney life. His photographs have appeared in exhibitions, fine art catalogues, private and corporate collections, magazines, newspapers and postcards.

‘Voices of Children’ is part of a collaborative research project looking at cultural differences, particularly in childhood. A total of 120 children aged between eight and 14 from Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, the United States and Australia were asked to capture images of their everyday experience using disposable cameras.

They were also asked to write a short piece about the photos they took. Selected photographs were then converted to large-scale images for exhibition in frames, montages or in over-head projector displays.

UOW project researcher from the Faculty of Education, Dr Ian Brown, said the project provided an innovative showcase for cross-cultural visual studies as well as a platform for collaborative research between the five institutions involved. The exhibition will now travel to City University Hong Kong, Assumption University Thailand, Universiti Sains Malaysia and Northern Illinois University USA.

-RP