Unsung Heroes again..............

In my blog about a week ago, I spoke of several unsung heroes - including Frank Wild and Frank Worsley.
Well, there is a third Frank - Frank Hurley. And yes, he too was a member of Shackleton's epic expedition. Hurley was an Australian photographer - the photographer on the expedition. Being a photographer, it behoves me to speak of famous photographers. My friend Mark frequently calls me Frank (just as I refer to him as Boss, the affectionate name given to Shackleton by his expedition members) - I've never been quite sure whether he is referring to Frank Hurley the photographer, or Frank Worsley the kiwi navigator - I suspect both!
On the ship Endurance, Frank Hurley had a darkroom and developed his films regularly, a task he performed diligently until not long before the ship disappeared below the ice. With survival being the paramount issue, when it became inevitable that the ship would not survive the crushing, Shackleton ordered Hurley to keep only 120 of his negatives and leave the rest on the ship. What a terrible task that would have been. The two of them smashed the remainder of the glass slides because Shackleton suspected that Hurley would endanger his life and possibly others by sneaking back later to retrieve them!

Hurley's iconic image of the Endurance

Endurance in the pack ice

Endurance's last moments

Winter at Shackleton's hut

This image obviously taken during a polar storm is one of my favourites. It reminds me of wintering over in the High Arctic 12 years ago when Mark and I were reduced to crawling during a ferocious storm, which, from memory, lasted six days.

Hurley had to leave his large (and heavy) plate camera on the ship. He was left with a simple Kodak camera and only three rolls of film. This would have amounted to ~40 images at the most, and Hurley had no idea how long these three rolls would have to last. The above image was one of them - the quality was clearly inferior to his plate camera images.

The rest you will know. They survived after what I consider to be the most incredible survival story of all time. They were eventually rescued from Elephant Island and returned to England - and into the middle of a World War. Hurley immediately signed on and entered the fray in Europe as a photographer.

Hurley in action - WW1

And then there was Herbert Ponting.
Ponting was the photographer on Scott's expedition - the ill-fated but successful South Pole attempt.

Ice Grotto and Terra Nova - a famous Ponting image

About nine months ago I was helping out at Artworks here in town where I used to work as a picture framer. On arrival this particular morning, Alan said to me "You like framing photographs. There's an old ice photo that needs rematting and framing".
On finding the work my eyes popped open wide - "Do you know what this is Alan?"
Alan had no idea, just thinking it was an old photograph.
"This image is significant - look at the signature" I blurted. "This could be valuable".

The image ready for reframing

The signature - H. G. Ponting

Both the image and the signature were original and in pretty good condition - and certainly deserved the best possible framing with conservation materials. I certainly enjoyed the challenge of completing the task.

A year or so before the earthquakes there was a superb exhibition at the McDougall Art Gallery - the Queen's collection of both Frank Hurley's and Herbert Ponting's Antarctic Expedition images.
What I would give to have just one on my wall!!

Two more heroes.