Frank Hurley
Australian-born James Francis (Frank) Hurley (1885-1962) began his long and extensive career as a professional photojournalist during the postcard boom from 1905 to 1910, 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 Australasian Antarctic expedition, led by Sir Douglas Mawson from 1911 to 1914, Hurley was aware of the importance of quality photography and continued to document expeditions and commissions in Australia and the Pacific over the following years. During 1914 to 1915 Hurley joined the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition led by Sir Ernest Shackleton and recorded the Antarctic life, survival and rescue of the party while their ship, the Endurance, lay trapped in pack ice and was finally crushed and sunk by moving ice floes. Mawson appointed Hurley to the 1929 to 1931 British, Australian and New Zealand Research expedition (Banzare) to provide documentary photographs and create a film to attract public interest.

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 to 1930s. From the 1940s to his death in 1962, Hurley travelled extensively across Australia and produced over nine highly successful publications documenting interesting views and scenes of Australian life in the cities and on the land.