Built in 1938 by architects Samuel Lipson and Peter Kaad, the ‘Hasting Deering service building’ was a new corporate headquarters for Hasting Deering Ltd however is now known as City Ford, a showroom for Ford cars. The name, identical with the motor industry and Ford vehicle sales, serviced for over 60 years. The architecture of the building is interesting as the elevators were simple horizontal bands of walls and steel framed glazing, and the rounded columns were set back from the external walls, so as to emphasise the sleek curved lines. Max Dupain photographed this building in 1938 from different and interesting angle shots, expressing formalist aesthetic and modernist ideas in society.
Max Dupain photographed the ‘Hasting Deering Service Building’ in 1938 which gives us not only a historical touch to the photograph but also presents us with a modernist idea of society. Dupain’s photographs of the newly completed building emphasises its form and structure. The way that Dupain has captured the building at different angles, the form of the building and how it is presented in the photograph, expressing the history of the building as well as capturing the modern day society and future. Its historic features such as the date and the colour of the photograph establish the significance of the photograph and how it would have appeared to society, making it seem as if the future has been presented with more modernism.
The fact that the Hasting Deering Service Building was showing the last trends in architecture though the 1930s, Dupain’s photograph was in a form of formalist but it still had its modern touches. Max Dupain’s photograph highlighted the moving forward mood and establishing modernism arriving and making it look new to society. Dupain’s photograph represented a sense of modernism in society and what the future held in the 1930s. Photographing ‘Hasting Deering Service Building’ from different angles enabled