FRANK HURLEY

Tuesday 2nd November 1915. Nearly a week had passed since Shackleton and his 27 companions abandoned their ship, the Endurance. Crushed and splintered by the pressure of the sea ice, she would soon sink into the ocean depths, where she lies to this day, preserved by the cold water. After a long day salvaging flour and other goods from the ship’s stores, then hauling them to the camp they had set up on the sea ice, Hurley secretly returned to the wreck, accompanied by a sailor, Walter How. This time, he was after a different kind of treasure – one left inside the ship’s refrigerating chamber that had served as his darkroom.

Made of zinc and soldered shut, the treasure consisted of tins containing photographic glass-plate and cellulose nitrate negatives. Already exposed by Hurley, these were the visual record of one of the greatest survival stories in the history of exploration - remarkable as much for what they documented as for the aesthetic power of their compositions.

As the party prepared to leave Ocean Camp and march north across the drifting sea ice in search of rescue, Shackleton instructed his men that each would be permitted to carry no more than two hundred pounds of personal belongings. Only two exceptions were made: Leonard Hussey, whose banjo Shackleton deemed essential for morale, and Frank Hurley, whose negatives would be indispensable for telling the tale – and for recouping some of the expedition’s debts – if its members survived.

The exception had its limits, however. With some 550 exposed glass plate negatives in his possession after salvaging the tins from the icy water, the only option was to select the most important images. Assisted by Shackleton, Hurley cast aside 400 negatives which he shattered on the ice, one by one, to avoid any temptation to change his mind.

Among the surviving photographs, many would say that the most iconic are those of the Endurance herself. Taken from any angle and at every distance - on sunny days, during the polar night, or with the ship lit by flare light, her rigging encrusted in ice - they capture both Hurley’s mastery and the vessel in her final, fragile splendour. 

Jean de Pomereu