To quote from the NGA’s website:

An Australian photographer and an American, side by side. Max Dupain (1911–1992) and Ansel Adams (1902–1984) shaped the visual imaginations of their respective nations through the lens of modernist photography. Though working on opposite sides of the Pacific, the two shared a commitment to creating timeless, heroic images remarkable for their formal clarity, tonal precision and exploration of the expressive potential of light. The result was some of the most emblematic photographs of the 20th century—making Dupain and Adams among the few photographers in history to become household names in their home countries.

Max Dupain and Ansel Adams: in search of perfection places Dupain’s architectural photographs and Adams’ iconic landscapes of the American West in conversation for the first time. Both photographers sought to define national identity through image-making—Dupain capturing a newly modern Australia, Adams elevating the American wilderness into a site of the spiritual sublime.The exhibition introduces the work of these two luminaries by showing the origins and development of their photographic practices. It then focuses on their mature work, bringing together photographs that share an uncannily similar approach to image-making. Both men were firmly committed to working in black and white, eschewing sentimentality for a shared visual language that prioritised structure, balance and control.

Adams’ iconic photographs of the American West have been rarely shown in Australia. They reflect the powerful but complicated story of colonial ambition, and the ideology of manifest destiny, and came to play a significant role in the preservation of many of the wilderness areas Adams photographed.

Dupain is best known for his modernist images of Australian culture from the 1930s, but from the 1950s, his work is defined by photographs of buildings—particularly his his collaborative practice over almost four decades with modernist architect Harry Seidler.