The Society’s highly acclaimed centenary exhibition honouring the achievements of Sir Ernest Shackleton and the men of the Endurance expedition of 1914-1917, opens at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, Los Angeles this September.
On show from 30 September 2017 to 28 January 2018, Endurance: the Antarctic Legacy of Sir Ernest Shackleton and Frank Hurley is the first US exhibition by the Society. It is hoped that a further two venues in the US will host the exhibition, which includes loans of artefacts from the Society’s extensive Antarctic collection alongside the remarkable images taken by Frank Hurley.
“During the day I hacked through the thick walls of the refrigerator to retrieve the negatives stored therein. They were located beneath four feet of mushy ice and, by stripping to the waist and diving under, I hauled them out. Fortunately, they are soldered up in double tin linings, so I am hopeful they may not have suffered by their submersion.” Frank Hurley’s diary, 2 November 1915
As his diary attests, the images featured in the exhibition are only available thanks to Hurley’s efforts, under the most extreme circumstances, to save the negatives. In preparation for the exhibition, the original photographic glass and celluloid negatives held by the Society were digitised. The result was over 90 high quality images, which reveal every detail contained in Hurley’s original negatives.
The Society has collaborated with the Salto Ulbeek studio in Belgium to create a limited edition series of platinum prints of Hurley’s images. Platinum prints have an expanded tonal range, three-dimensionality and painterly quality when compared to black and white silver prints, making them a fitting testament to the skill and quality of Hurley’s original photography.