Collectors' List No. 108 • 2004 Ice & Snow: Antarctica and Mt Everest

	NOTE: Linked large images in this collection have now been archived. If you would like to view images other than those thumbnailed here please contact us email.
James Francis (Frank) Hurley (1885-1962) ...Australian-born Frank Hurley began his long and extensive career as a professional photojournalist during the postcard boom in 1905-10, as an employee of Cave & Co., Sydney. He later became a partner and finally took over ownership of the company. Hurley travelled extensively throughout his lifetime, presenting his work through film, stills, lectures and publications. ...In the tradition of the "pioneer view trade" photographers, who made their living from photographing landscapes, Hurley's photography was primarily a business and, at times, he enhanced his images using montage and inserting sky effects to create more dramatic, saleable images. His photographic work was his main means of recouping finances after the Australian Antarctic expedition and the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expeditions. His photographs often depict the battle of man against the forces of nature, reducing the individual to a symbol of mankind, and his commissions lent themselves to this theme. ...As official photographer to the tragic Australasian Antarctic expedition, led by Sir Douglas Mawson 1911-14, he was aware of the importance of quality photography and continued to document his commissions in Australia and the Pacific over the following years. During 1914-15 Hurley joined the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition led by Sir Ernest Shackleton and recorded the Antarctic life of the party while their ship, the "Endurance", lay trapped in pack ice in the South Atlantic and was finally crushed and sunk by moving floes. ...Hurley documented several of the war zones of both the First and Second World Wars and continued to accept commissions, and work on private projects, which took him away from Australia throughout his life, making further trips to the Antarctic and to New Guinea from the 1920s-30s. From the 1940s to his death in 1962, Hurley produced several highly successful publications documenting Australia.
	43 ["Aurora"] 1911. Silver gelatin photograph; signed on image lower left; 38 x 30.4cm. Foxing and staining to margins. The "Aurora" was the ship which took the 1911-14 Mawson expedition to the Antarctic. Provenance: from Hurley descendant.	$6,500
	44 Royal penguins... ...on Nugget’s Beach, Macquarie Island, 1911. Silver gelatin photograph; 22.6 x 35cm. Repaired creases upper and lower right, chipped edges. Taken during the 1911-14 Mawson expedition. The wreck of the Gratitude, sunk in 1898, can be seen in the background. Illustrated with caption in D.P. Millar, From Snowdrift to Shellfire, Sydney, 1984, p. 22. Provenance: from Hurley descendant.	$4,900
	45 [Antarctic landscape] c1912. Silver gelatin photograph; signed on image lower right; 75.3 x 101cm. Fading, yellowing, fine surface cracks, minor surface losses, repaired tears, water stains. Original oak frame. Possibly from the Mawson expedition.	$3,300
	46 Cape Denison The pallid glow of a midwinter noon at Cape Denison, 1912. Blue-toned carbon print; original exhibition label from the Fine Art Society verso; 43.2 x 59cm. Repaired scratches upper right, slight cracking of emulsion lower right. Original oak frame. Titled by hand and numbered "98" in exhibition label with letterpress statement: Notice. This photograph is enlarged from a negative taken during Dr Mawson's Australasian Antarctic expedition, and is copyrighted in all countries. Sole agents: The Fine Art Society, 148 New Bond Street, London. When this exhibition opened in London in 1915 Hurley was with the Shackleton expedition in the Antarctic	$11,000
	47 The end, 1915 Silver gelatin photograph; signed below on original backing lower right; 37.7 x 27.9cm. Slight foxing to margins, very faint foxing to sky. Taken during the Shackleton expedition. Illustrated with caption: "We took a dog team down to the wreck and salvaged a few essentials" in D.P. Millar, From Snowdrift to Shellfire, Sydney, 1984, p. 39. Considered "Hurley's best known and most widely reproduced photograph of the wreck." [South with Endurance: Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition 1914-1917, The Photographs of Frank Hurley, Victoria, 2001, p. 167].	$12,000
	48 "Endurance" "Endurance" - a spectre ship set in a world of rime crystals, 1915/1962. Silver gelatin photograph; 49.5 x 38cm. Framed. This is the most famous of his images from the Shackleton expedition. Printed by Hurley in 1962 for the Kodak sponsored exhibition of the Shackleton expedition. This is among the last prints produced by Hurley before he died. Illustrated in D.P. Millar, From Snowdrift to Shellfire, Sydney, 1984, p. 35. Provenance: David P. Millar.	$11,000
	49 "Endurance" A close-up view of the deck of the "Endurance", 1915. Silver gelatin photograph; 7.5 x 6.4cm. This is a contact print. Illustrated with caption in South with Endurance: Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition 1914-1917, The Photographs of Frank Hurley, Victoria, 2001, p. 162.	$3,300
	50 Frank Wild... ...surveys the ship's remains on November 8, 1915, when he, Shackleton, and Hurley paid the last official visit to the wreck, 1915. Silver gelatin photograph; 6 x 7.5cm. This is a contact print. Illustrated with caption in South with Endurance: Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition 1914-1917, The Photographs of Frank Hurley, Victoria, 2001, p. 168.	$3,300