Glass Plate/Scott Antarctic Expedition

[Merg Ross]

Utilizing digital technology, about 1,700 glass plates made by Herbert Ponting have been preserved and the images are now on line. Ponting was Scott's official photographer for the Antarctic Expedition of 1910. The plates were 5x7.

Click on Freeze Frame and check out the Ponting gallery. There is some beautiful work displayed, made under difficult conditions.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/antarctica/4690049/Captain-Scotts-Antarctic-expedition-Rarely-seen-pictures-to-go-on-display.html

[Jim Graves]

VERY interesting ... there is hardy and then there is HARDY!! I can't imagine doing what those guys did with the gear they had then ... and then to shoot dry plates ... amazing. I guess I won't complain next time my fingers get a little cold while shooting.

[aphexafx]

I agree, this is amazing. Antarctic field tableaux! Amazing work done by Ponting and company. Work like this is why I love the photographic process.

Thanks for sharing this.

[IanG]

If you ever get a chance go to Dundee in Scotland and see the Scott's ship the Endeavour which is a museum now. Ponting's darkroom on the ship has been restored.

Most of those photographs shown were published in a book about Ponting 2-3 years ago.

Ian

[frank hoerauf]

thats very interesting, definately worthwhile to preserve these great photos.

[claudiocambon]

Frank Hurley's pictures from the Shackleton expedition aboard the Endeavour in the Antarctic are also incredible, and were preserved despite the expedition's stranding for over a year after the ship was trapped and eventually "eaten" by the ice.

[evan clarke]

Frank Hurley's pictures from the Shackleton expedition aboard the Endeavour in the Antarctic are also incredible, and were preserved despite the expedition's stranding for over a year after the ship was trapped and eventually "eaten" by the ice.

400 of Hurley's glass plates were left underwater in the Endurance when the crew escaped in the lifeboats. All the Antarctic photos are amazing, I love Ponting's photo of the Terra Nova through the grotto...Evan Clarke

[Steve M Hostetter]

wonderful I'd sure like to see them all

[claudiocambon]

400 of Hurley's glass plates were left underwater in the Endurance when the crew escaped in the lifeboats. All the Antarctic photos are amazing, I love Ponting's photo of the Terra Nova through the grotto...Evan Clarke

As an additional note (and not to highjack the thread), once the crew saw that the ice was going to "keep" the ship, Hurley dove into the ship to retrieve the negatives, and did an assortment then and there of what to keep and what to discard. In addition to the food and ammo, the next weighty item on the sleds were the negs!

[Brian Ellis]

wonderful I'd sure like to see them all

You can see many of Hurley's photographs in the book "The Endurance - Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition." It's a fascinating book completely apart from Hurley's incredible photographs.

[Merg Ross]

You can see many of Hurley's photographs in the book "The Endurance - Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition." It's a fascinating book completely apart from Hurley's incredible photographs.

Hurley also made some fine photographs of Antarctica, after Ponting. What fascinated me, was the ability to now see the Ponting glass plate images made prior to those of Hurley.

For more on Hurley, this may be of interest:


http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/features/endurance/

[Big Fish]

Merg....

What is Freeze Frame?

Thanks.

Big Fish

[Merg Ross]

Scroll down the link, you will see.

[David Karp]

Thanks Merg. The photographs are very interesting.

[Jim Galli]

Thanks Merg. I went round and round in there for quite a while. The 1911 snow tractors, the dog listening to the gramophone, really really fun. Fun that they were there and I wasn't.

Perhaps a new thread is needed. Ponting left his family for his siren, the camera. Edward left his (temporarily). Are there other famous photogs that let the sirens of the camera get the better of them?

[Struan Gray]

Hurley is a fascinating character. His photographs from the Mawson expedition are if anything even more impressive than the Shackleton trip. Likewise those from the trenches of Passchendaele and Ypres. He doesn't seem to get the due he deserves when people talk about war photographers, despite the fact that his photographs are often the ones used to show the grimness of trench warfare in the mud, this one in particular:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chateau_Wood_Ypres_1917.jpg

The National Library of Australia now has a lot of Hurley prints and negatives online. The span of his career is incredible, and the toughness shown on the Shackleton expedition seems to have pervaded his whole life. There are some good archival links from the Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Hurley

FWIW, if anyone is tempted to go to the Scott Polar Research Institute to look at originals, I always found them to be politely obstructive and unhelpful, in contrast to most other specialist exploration libraries like the RGS and the Alpine Club who always seemed ready to go out of their way to help. Perhaps they get too many idle inquiries, but if you're making a special trip, it is best to equip yourself with some hardcore academic credentials before you turn up.

[evan clarke]

As an additional note (and not to highjack the thread), once the crew saw that the ice was going to "keep" the ship, Hurley dove into the ship to retrieve the negatives, and did an assortment then and there of what to keep and what to discard. In addition to the food and ammo, the next weighty item on the sleds were the negs!

Hurley was the expedition tinsmith and had sealed the plates in tin boxes!! All this stuff is fantastic...Evan Clarke

[Gene McCluney]

It sure seems like some of the photos (interiors) were shot using flash powder as a light source.