The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, presents The Heart of the Great Alone: Scott, Shackleton and Antarctic Photography. This is mainly a photographic exhibition featuring images by photographers James Francis (Frank) Hurley (1885-1962) and Herbert George Ponting (1870-1935) who accompanied Captain Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912) and Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874-1922) on their expeditions to the South Pole. Diaries, documents, log books and, most importantly, photographs by Ponting, Hurley and others, provide a fascinating insight into these expedition. The photographs displayed in The Heart of the Great Alone form part of a collection presented to King George V.
The name of the exhibition comes from Herbert Ponting's book about Antarctica, The Great White South. Writing about Scott, and the four members of the expedition who lost their lives, he said: ″They were destined never to return from the heart of the Great Alone.″
Although The Heart of the Great Alone specifically marks the centenary of Scott's ill-fated expedition of 1910-13 on the Terra Nova, it also showcases photographs of Ernest Shackleton's journey on the Endurance in 1914-16. The presentation features the flag presented by Queen Alexandra, (widow of King Edward VII), to Captain Scott, which his widow returned after his death. The display also includes the Union flag presented to Ernest Shackleton by King George V. The installation features Polar medals and books from the Royal Library, including an example of Aurora Australis, the first book to be printed in the Antarctic.
Antarctic Explorers – the Men Who Made History
Captain Robert Falcon Scott
Captain Robert Falcon Scott, a Royal Navy officer and explorer, led two expeditions to the South Pole. The first, the Discovery Expedition, took place from 1901 to 1904. The second, on the doomed Terra Nova in 1910, resulted in the death of five of his team. Furthermore, he arrived at the South Pole on 17th January 1912 only to discover that Roald Amundsen's Norwegian Expedition had beaten him to it!
Scott was accompanied by Herbert Ponting, the first official photographer to embark on a journey to the polar regions. Ponting captured the appalling conditions and extraordinary landscapes faced by these explorers: scenes like the dramatic The Ramparts of Mount Erebus (1911) are hard to appreciate on a photograph. Ponting's images provide a detailed insight into the everyday activities and relationships on the expedition. Another poignant image captured by Ponting is Grotto in an iceberg (1911). Again it's almost impossible to appreciate the magnificence of this natural phenomena through the medium of a photograph.
Ponting also photographed wildlife and the exhibition features a photograph of one of the sledge dogs – Vida (1911). In his diaries Scott describes how he would massage the bad-tempered Vida who at first rejected his kindness but eventually grew to accept it. Scott notes, ″he evidently grew to like the warming effect and sidled up to me whenever I came out of the hut… He is a strange beast – I imagine so unused to kindness that it took him time to appreciate it″.
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton
Ernest Shackleton had already travelled as third officer on Scott's Discovery Expedition, from which journey he was sent home early because of poor health. For him, this was a great personal failure for which he would later try to make amends by conquering the territory on foot. He set off on the Endurance in 1914.
Among Shackleton's crew was the Australian photographer, Frank Hurley, who recorded the journey, including the moment when the Endurance was trapped in pack ice and crushed – The Endurance crushed between the floes (25th October 1911). Hurley managed to salvage 120 plates, but lost most of his equipment apart from a small pocket camera and a few rolls of film. He spent three freezing days on the ice capturing the ship's final days.
The Heart of the Great Alone – Exhibition Catalogue
To accompany the display The Royal Collection has published a 256-page catalogue (ISBN 978 1 905686 15 5) by David Hempleman-Adams, Sophie Gordon and Emma Stuart.
Hempleman-Adams introduces Ponting and Hurley and the publication explores the expeditions through their eyes. The book features additional essays on the photographers and their methods, together with maps and chronologies of the explorations, as well as biographies of expedition members.
The Heart of the Great Alone: Scott, Shackleton and Antarctic Photography will be on show until 15th April 2012. Further information about the publication and exhibition can be obtained from The Royal Collection.
Sources:
- The Royal Collection
- Hempleman-Adams, D., Gordon, S., Stuart, E., The Heart of the Great Alone: Scott, Shackleton and Antarctic Photography, The Royal Collection, 2011
Frances Spiegel - Frances Spiegel, B.A. Hons. (Open)., Dip.Eur.Hum., read Art History/European Modern History at the Open University.
