Frank Hurley

James Francis "Frank" Hurley, OBE (15 October 1885 – 16 January 1962) was an Australian photographer, film maker and adventurer. He participated in a number of expeditions to Antarctica and served as an official photographer with Australian forces during both world wars.

His artistic style produced many memorable images but he also used staged scenes, composites and photographic manipulation for which he has been criticised on the grounds that it diminished the documentary value of his work. Fact|date=March 2008

Biography

Hurley was the third of five children to parents Edward and Margaret Hurley and was raised Glebe, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. [McGregor (2004) p 8] He ran away from home at the age of 14 to work on the Sydney docks. When he was 17 he bought his first camera, a 15 shilling Kodak Box Brownie which he paid for at the rate of a shilling per week. He taught himself photography and set himself up in the postcard business.

Antarctic expeditions

At the age of 25, in 1910, Hurley learned that Australian explorer Douglas Mawson was planning an expedition to Antarctica; Hurley cornered Mawson on a train and asked to be made expedition photographer. Mawson did just that, while the manager of a local Kodak branch who Hurley was in debt to provided photographic equipment. The Australasian Antarctic Expedition departed in 1911 and lasted until 1914.

Hurley was also the official photographer on Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition which set out in 1914 and was marooned until August 1916; Hurley produced many pioneering colour images of the Expedition using the then-popular Paget process of colour photography. He later compiled his records into the documentary film "South" in 1919.

Wartime photography

In 1917, Hurley joined the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) as an honorary captain and captured many stunning battlefield scenes during the Battle of Passchendaele. In keeping with his adventurous spirit, he took considerable risks to photograph his subjects, also producing many rare colour photographs of the conflict. His period with the AIF ended in March 1918. Hurley also served as a war photographer during World War II.

Photographic holdings

Photographs by Hurley of the Antarctic are held by a number of institutions. Notable collections include the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, National Library of Australia, Canberra, Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, Royal Geographical Society, London, and the South Australian Museum, Adelaide.

National Library of Australia
* [http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an11546686 "Frank Hurley Negative Collection"] , 1910-1962The collection contains 10,999 glass negatives, plastic negatives, colour transparencies, lantern slides, and stereographs that have been fully catalogued and digitised.

The collection covers photographs of Hurley's trips to Antarctica; as official photographer during World War 1914-1918; later travels in the Middle East and Egypt; as official photographer during World War 1939-1945; Papua and New Guinea; Australian scenery, industries and social life and customs.

Related photographic prints can be found in the "Hurley Collection of Photographic Prints".
* [http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an24539066 "Hurley collection of photographic prints"] , 1910-1962The collection contains 1000 photographic prints. 44 prints have been catalogued and digitised.
* [http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an13751629 "B.A.N.Z. Antarctic Research Expedition 1929-31, photographs"] , 1929-1931This album contains 60 gelatin silver photographs by Hurley, all of which have been catalogued and digitised.
* [http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn3201344 "Photograph album of Papua and the Torres Strait"] , The collection contains 259 photographic prints, all of which have been catalogued and digitised.

References

Writings by Hurley

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Writings About Hurley

*Cite web |last=Kleinig |first=Simon |url=http://www.nla.gov.au/pub/nlanews/2003/aug03/article3.html |title=Hiking with Hurley |work=NLA News, Volume 13, Number 11 |publisher=National Library of Australia |month=August |year=2003
*Cite book |last=McGregor |first=Alasdair |title=Frank Hurley: A photographer's life |publisher=Viking |location=Camberwell |year=2004 |isbn=0-670-88895-8

External links

*imdb name|0403439
* [http://nla.gov.au/nla.ms-ms883 Guide to the Papers of Frank Hurley, National Library of Australia - Note: the diaries in Series 1 have been digitised and accessible online]
* [http://image.sl.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/ebindshow.pl?doc=on_26/a090;thumbs=1 Colour photographs by Frank Hurley from the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition]
* [http://www.nevasport.com/nevablogs/d/frank-hurley---una-leyenda-australiana---frank-hurley---an-australian-legend/988 "Frank Hurley: An Australian Legend"]
* [http://www.awm.gov.au/people/222.asp AWM biography]
* [http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/features/endurance/ Kodak feature on Frank Hurley during his voyage with Ernest Shackleton aboard the Endurance]
* [http://www.visitandlearn.co.uk/enduranceobituaries/hurley.asp Frank Hurley obit]
* [http://colsearch.nfsa.afc.gov.au/nfsa/search/summary/summary.w3p;adv=yes;group=;groupequals=;page=0;parentid=;query=Number%3A355516%20|%20Number%3A352543%20|%20Number%3A354107%20|%20Number%3A355029%20|%20Number%3A567324%20|%20Number%3A567141%20|%20Number%3A503018%20|%20Number%3A351368%20|%20Number%3A353062;querytype=;resCount=10 Frank Hurley at the National Film and Sound Archive]