photo - web

photography - australian - essays - books - collections - asia pacific and more.   photoweb contents page

SHADES OF LIGHT Based on text from the original book: Shades of Light: Photography and Australia 1839-1988 Gael Newton, 1988 Australian National Gallery   Chapter 10 Footnotes Return to Chapter (10)         contents        Next Chapter (11)   Photornechanical reproduction, cinematography and the increased speed and comfort of travel from the turn of the century on played a significant role in the growth of photojournalism. See Naomi Rosenblum, A World History of Photography (New York: Abbeville, 198 1), pp.461-3, for developments 1900-1920. For this view of Hurley as a character shaped by a code of 'moral activism' of the Victorian period, see David P. Millar, From Snowdrift to Shellfire: Capt. James Francis (Frank) Hurley (Sydney: David Ell, 1984), pp.12, 28. The account of Hurley's career in this chapter is based on Millar's book which also contains a chronology, bibliography and list of sources of Hurley photographs. Hurley never became a photojournalist in the compassionate, dramatised style of the photographs in the Family of Man, see Millar, p. 146. Ibid., pp. 16-19. Hurley sold over 20,000 of one card series titled Power and Steam. Quote in Herbert Ponting, The Great White South: Being An Account of Experiences with Captain Scott's South Pole Expedition and of the Nature Life of the Antarctic (London: Duckworth, 1921), p.2. Photographs had been taken on Antarctic voyages since the 1870s, see ch.6, p.53. A member of the crew was usually hastily instructed in the use of a camera. Ibid., p.xiv. Quoted in H.J.P.Arnold, Photographer of the World: A Biography of Herbert Ponting (London: Hutchinson, 1969), p.83. Ibid. p.83. Views expressed by the Senior Chaplain to the Forces in a letter to Ponting concerning films shown in France. For the use of colour photography on Mawson's expedition see Appendix. For Ponting's prior career as a travel photographer see H.J.P. Arnold, Herbert Ponting Another World: Photographs in the United States, Asia, Europe and Antarctica 1900-1912 (London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1975). Birtles was an indifferent photographer who functioned rather as nineteenth century itinerant photographers had done, except that his income depended on the publication rights, not print sales for a views trade. See David P. Millar, From Snowdrift to Shellfire, op. cit., pp.30-3 for Hurley's association with Birtles. Ponting and Hurley were aware of each other's work and respectful of their respective achievements. The work of both men can be compared in Jennie Boddington, Antarctic Photographs 1910-1916: Herbert Ponting and Frank Hurley: Scott, Mawson and Shackleton Expeditions (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1979). Ponting, like Hurley, understood the nature of publicity. He was distressed by the difficulties in having his Antarctic work published: 'I have for years been a contributor to the finest papers of the world, and my main object injoining the Expedition was that my work might continue to appear in these papers.' Ponting quoted in H.J.P.Arnold, Photographer of the World: A Biography of Herbert Ponting, op. cit., p. 8 5. Wilkins has not achieved the fame of Hurley as a photographer, but was knighted for his exploration work, see Lowell Thomas, Sir Hubert Wilkins, His World of Adventure: An Autobiography Recounted by Lowell Thomas (London: Readers Book Club edn., 1963). The conflicts of approach between Hurley and his superiors see David P. Millar, Snowdrift to Shellfire, op.cit., p.48. Ibid., p.52. Ibid., p.62. A quote from Frank Hurley, Diary, 31 December 1917. Australian National Library, Canberra MS 883, Hurley's New Guinea negatives were reprinted in Jim Specht and John Fields, Frank Hurley in Papua: Photographs of the 1920-1923 Expeditions (Sydney: Robert Brown for the Australian Museum Trust, 1984). For example Australian War Photographs. The great increase in the number and quality of illustrated books on Australian subjects in recent years has seen the publication of many more images. Fixed in Time: Photographs from Another Australia 1900-1939 (Sydney: John Fairfax and Sons, 1985) has a good selection of Hurley photographs including many of the Antarctic and war colour images, as well as snapshots and official war pictures. Album held by the National Library of Australia, Canberra. Aerial photography became a significant part of war surveillance and reconnaissance during World War One.   Next Chapter (11) Return to Chapter (10)         contents        Search Shades