Exterior of BHP blast furnace

Established in the early 1900s, the Australian steel industry experienced a major boom in the 1950s and 1960s when demand and investment, previously suppressed by the Depression and World War II, flourished. The removal of an embargo on iron and steel exports in 1961 saw Australian steel output more than quadruple between 1960 and 1970.

Dupain found industrial photography to be just as glamorous as other areas of photography. As such, he treated all of his industry assignments as both an artist and photographer: ‘All industry has an aesthetic and it is up to the photographer to discover it.