Pioneering Antarctic photography: Herbert Ponting and Frank Hurley

Abstract

Herbert Ponting and Frank Hurley became the first specialist photographers recruited to British and Australian Antarctic expeditions. Ponting was enlisted on Captain Robert Scott’s 1910–1913 British Antarctic Expedition, while Hurley was employed by Dr Douglas Mawson’s 1911–1914 Australasian Antarctic Expedition. The enduring impact of Ponting and Hurley’s iconic images has shaped – and misshapen – a cultural perception of Antarctica, constructing a visual understanding that the author terms a “black and white memory”. In recent years, photo historians have pitted the artistry and intrinsic value of Ponting and Hurley’s photographic images against the other. This article chooses to sharpen the close-up lens on two historic photographic legacies, within the cultural context of their respective expeditions. It examines the aesthetics particular to each man’s vision, influenced and informed by: differing creative philosophies; contrasting cultures within the expeditions; the physical nature of two Antarctic locations; and the range of field experiences available to each photographer.

Keywords:

• Frank Hurley
• Herbert Ponting
• Antarctic photography
• Heroic era
• Australasian Antarctic Expedition
• British Antarctic Expedition
• Robert Scott
• Douglas Mawson
• Cape Evans
• Commonwealth Bay

Notes

¹ Stylistic note: in keeping with various archival sources, “Winter Quarters Hut” (Cape Evans) is capitalised throughout this article, while “winter quarters” (Cape Denison) is styled in lower case.

² Mawson, “Frank Hurley – Artist,” Life 167.

³ Legg, Once More on my Adventure, 83.

⁴ Ponting, The Great White South, 67.

⁵ Szto, Furman, and Langer, “Poetry and Photography,” Qualitative Social Work, 144.

⁶ Gray and Newton, South with Endurance, 236.

⁷ Ibid., 237.

⁸ Newton, Silver and Grey, 99.

⁹ Gray and Newton, South with Endurance, 237.

¹⁰ Baudelaire, cited in Meecham and Sheldon, Modern Art, 62. Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) contested the doctrine of “truth to nature” by dividing artists into Realists and Imaginatives. “The realist seeks to copy nature, the imaginative, to ‘paint its own soul’” (62). That soul was metaphoric of an internal landscape: for the Imaginatives, nature could only exist with meaning through the artist’s internal eye.

¹¹ Martin, A History of Antarctica, 139.

¹² Scott, Scott’s Last Expedition: The Personal Journals of Captain R. F. Scott, 97.

¹³ Cited in Ponting and Hurley, 1910–1916 Antarctic Photographs, 28.

¹⁴ McLean, A.A.E. Diaries, Diary Entry, 27 February 1912.

¹⁵ Cited in Ponting and Hurley, 1910–1916 Antarctic Photographs, 36.

¹⁶ Laseron, South with Mawson, 3.

¹⁷ Scott, Scott’s Last Expedition: The Personal Journals of Captain R. F. Scott, 282.

¹⁸ Mawson, “Australasian Antarctic Expedition 1911–1914,” The Geographical Journal, 269.

¹⁹ Hunter, A.A.E. Diaries, Diary Entry, 13 October 1912.

²⁰ Mawson, “Australasian Antarctic Expedition 1911–1914,” The Geographical Journal, 264.

²¹ Laseron, South with Mawson, 3.

²² Mawson, “Lecture Notes 1914’.

²³ Hannam, A.A.E. Diaries, Diary Entry, 22 May 1912.

²⁴ Ibid., 14 April 1912.

²⁵ Ibid., 16 June 1912.

²⁶ Moorehead, Sidney Nolan, 4.

²⁷ Mawson, Lecture Notes 1914.

²⁸ Ninnis, B.E.S. Diaries, Diary Entry, 21 June 1912.

²⁹ Alexander, The Endurance, 65.

³⁰ Arnold, Photographer of the World, 49.