Frank Hurley was a fantastic photographer who took his greatest pictures between 1913-1918.
My family first met him in conjunction with Sir Ernest Shackleton’s expedition to Antarctica on the good ship Endurance.
It was the most extraordinary true adventure story we’d ever heard, and we’ve loved revisiting it ever since!
Frank Hurley’s photos are a magnificent part of the brave story.
The place to start is with Alfred Lansing’s book Endurance.
You can follow it up with Caroline Alexander’s The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition.
It doesn’t matter which edition of these books–they’ve all got a Frank Hurley photograph on the cover.
Who was Frank Hurley?
Born in 1885 Australia, Hurley bought his first camera a box Brownie at the age of 17 and set himself up as a photographer.
In 1911, he talked his way onto an Antarctica expedition led by Douglas Mawson. He convinced the local Kodak representative to provide him with equipment and off they went.
Frank Hurley returned in 1914 with a movie he made of the expedition: Home of the Blizzard.
Frank Hurley and the Endurance
Not long afterward, he joined Shackelton’s expedition for the experience of a lifetime!
The Imperial Trans-Arctic Expedition was an extraordinary undertaking.
The original plan involved Shackelton’s crew landing on one side of the Antarctic continent and traveling by dogsled overland to the other.
(Few people know another expedition launched from the opposite side of the continent to store caches of food for Shackleton’s dogsledders to finish their cross-continent trip.
(The story of The Ross Party is as unbelievable as the fate of the Endurance crew. You can read it in The Lost Men: The Harrowing Saga of Shackleton’s Ross Sea Party by Kelly Tyler-Lewis.
(A Coast Guard friend of ours visited the site ten years ago. “It was amazing to walk through the hut, which looked as though the Ross Party had just stepped out.”)
Meanwhile, when the Endurance was iced in on the other side of the continent, Frank Hurley climbed into the riggings, skied away from the ship and took fabulous photos.
With his engineering mind, Hurley loved to tinker and fix things.
As the expedition continued, particularly after the ice crushed and sunk the Endurance, his skills kept the men alive.
An able hand-man, he kept continually busy with self-imposed tasks, such as creating an efficient “thaw box” for frozen seal meat . . . his stint as an electrician . . . enabled him to run the Endurance’s little electric plant.”
Caroline Alexander’s “The Endurance.”
(These photos are all from Wikipedia Commons or are in the public domain).
Saving the photos
Throughout the horrific conditions, Hurley protected his photographic plates, compiled notes about the photographs, and even dove into frigid waters when several plates fell through the ice.
The negatives were located beneath four feet of mushy ice and by stripping to the waist and diving under, I hauled them out. Fortunately they were soldered up in double tin linings.”
Frank Hurley quoted in “The Endurance: Shakelton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition.
He also kept a meticulous diary.
When the time came to abandon the ice floe on which they’d sheltered after the ship went down, the men had to jettison most of their possessions.
But Shackleton and his crew recognized the photographs’ value.
He and Hurley examined all the photographs taken since their departure from civilization. Hurley resoldered 120 into lead-lined tins and dumped nearly 400 photographic plates.
Fortunately, he had an album of photos already printed which were much lighter to carry.
In addition to the most fabulous photos, Hurley made another movie, too.
You can view his photos in the National Library of Australia online digitized catalog here. (also in the public domain).
Frank Hurley and World War I
Hurley would have gone into history for his Endurance work, but he didn’t stop there.
Once returned to civilization, he joined the Australian army as a photographer and immediately to the battlegrounds of France.
He also spent time the last year of WWI in Palestine–where he produced photos of the Australian Light Horse brigades!
He shot the most famous photos of the Great War.
You know these photos (also in the public domain and available through Wikipedia Commons):
His goal?
To illustrate to the public the things our fellows do and how war is conducted”
It got tricky because of the question–how does a photographer take battle pictures without getting killed himself?
Hurley devised a system of “composite” photos, basically photoshopping several photos into one.
The Australian Army didn’t like that idea, but after Hurley resigned in protest, they allowed him to do. They asked, however, that he mark the composite photos.
You can read more about Hurley’s career in Showman, here.
After the war
Frank Hurley married and returned home to Australia. His career flourished, he helped make movies, went on my expeditions and took photos during World War II as well.
Truly, his was an enduring photographic legacy!
2022 Update
Researchers off the coast of Antarctica on the Endurance 2, FOUND the Endurance in March 2022!
Click on the link to see a video of the ship–still, of course, underwater
Tweetables
Frank Hurley: An Enduring legacy of great photos. Click to Tweet
Who shot the greatest historic Antarctica photos? Click to Tweet
Michelle, your research is always impeccable. Lack many parents, we read the account of Shackleton and the Endurance crew. He was an incredible man. Now, you’ve introduced us to Frank Hurley’s photography, another man who treated his profession with reverence and dedication.