NEARLY a century after he hand-delivered them to Buckingham Palace, legendary Australian photographer Frank Hurley’s iconic Antarctic images have gone on display. His pictures from Ernest Shackleton’s epic Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition from 1914-1917 form half of the first photographic exhibition to be held at the Palace.
Hurley’s shots were from a deluxe album he presented to King George V in 1917, one of only five, encompassing an extraordinary tale of survival at the bottom of the world. The Australian shares top billing at the Queen’s Gallery alongside late English photographer Herbert Ponting, the man behind the lens for Captain Robert Scott’s ill-fated quest to reach the South Pole first.
Their images form the bulk of the exhibition titled: The Heart of the Great Alone: Scott, Shackleton and Antarctic Photography. The display of the beautiful but unforgiving part of the world is designed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Capt Scott’s death on the return leg from the South Pole.