The first camera Frank Hurley owned was a purchase made for 15 shillings, paid off at a rate of one shilling per week while he worked as an engineering apprentice. This early acquisition launched a career spanning global conflict and polar exploration, defining how the public perceived extreme landscapes and the front lines of total war.
Early Career and Antarctic Expeditions
Born in 1885 in the Sydney suburb of Glebe, Hurley spent over four years of his life in Antarctica. In 1911, he secured a position as the official photographer for the Australasian Antarctic Expedition led by Douglas Mawson. He famously cornered Mawson on a train to secure the role, eventually recording the expedition's activities at Cape Denison. During the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition with Ernest Shackleton, which began in 1914, Hurley’s work was constrained by the loss of the ship Endurance in 1915. He was forced to abandon most of his equipment, retaining only a hand-held Vest Pocket Kodak camera to capture the subsequent ordeal. He later returned to the region during the BANZARE expeditions of 1929 and 1931.
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In 1917, Hurley joined the Australian Imperial Force as an honorary captain to serve as a war photographer. He documented the Third Battle of Ypres and the Battle of Passchendaele, often exposing himself to significant danger to record the realities of conflict. During this period, he became embroiled in a professional dispute regarding his use of composite images. He temporarily resigned his post in October 1917 after being ordered to cease the practice of combining negatives, which he maintained was a necessary technique to accurately convey the horror and scale of the warfare he witnessed.
Film and Legacy
Beyond still photography, Hurley was an active filmmaker, director, and author. His notable works include Grandad Rudd, Pearls and Savages, Tall Timbers, The Hound of the Deep, The Jungle Woman, and A Nation Is Built. He frequently toured with his documentaries, such as Siege of the South, to help finance expeditions and reach cinema audiences. His contributions were formally recognized with the Polar Medal in 1930 and an appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1941. Hurley died in Sydney in 1962.
Fast facts
- Born: 1885, Glebe, Australia
- Died: 1962, Sydney, Australia
- Awards: Polar Medal (1930), OBE (1941)
- Significant Expeditions: Australasian Antarctic Expedition, Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, BANZARE
- Military Service: Australian Imperial Force (1917–1918)
- Notable Film: Shackleton's Argonauts
- Profession: Photographer, cinematographer, war photographer, director
Questions readers ask
Why did Frank Hurley use composite photographs?
Hurley believed that composite images allowed him to better capture the magnitude and emotional impact of war, which he felt single negatives could not adequately convey.
What happened to Hurley's photographic equipment on the Shackleton expedition?
Most of his cameras, lenses, and tripods were abandoned when the ship Endurance was crushed by ice in 1915. He saved only a small Vest Pocket Kodak camera and 120 glass-plate negatives.
Achievements
- Officer of the Order of the British Empire
- Polar Medal
- Australian Media Hall of Fame
- Recorded as explorer, photographer and war photographer
