Glass Plate/Scott Antarctic Expedition

[Merg Ross]

Utilizing digital technology, about 1,700 glass plates made by Herbert Ponting have been preserved and the images are now on line. Ponting was Scott's official photographer for the Antarctic Expedition of 1910. The plates were 5x7.

Click on Freeze Frame and check out the Ponting gallery. There is some beautiful work displayed, made under difficult conditions.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...n-display.html

[Jim Graves]

VERY interesting ... there is hardy and then there is HARDY!! I can't imagine doing what those guys did with the gear they had then ... and then to shoot dry plates ... amazing. I guess I won't complain next time my fingers get a little cold while shooting.

[aphexafx]

I agree, this is amazing. Antarctic field tableaux! Amazing work done by Ponting and company. Work like this is why I love the photographic process.

Thanks for sharing this.

[IanG]

If you ever get a chance go to Dundee in Scotland and see the Scott's ship the Endeavour which is a museum now. Ponting's darkroom on the ship has been restored.

Most of those photographs shown were published in a book about Ponting 2-3 years ago.

Ian

[frank hoerauf]

thats very interesting, definately worthwhile to preserve these great photos.

[claudiocambon]

Frank Hurley's pictures from the Shackleton expedition aboard the Endeavour in the Antarctic are also incredible, and were preserved despite the expedition's stranding for over a year after the ship was trapped and eventually "eaten" by the ice.

[evan clarke]

Frank Hurley's pictures from the Shackleton expedition aboard the Endeavour in the Antarctic are also incredible, and were preserved despite the expedition's stranding for over a year after the ship was trapped and eventually "eaten" by the ice.

400 of Hurley's glass plates were left underwater in the Endurance when the crew escaped in the lifeboats. All the Antarctic photos are amazing, I love Ponting's photo of the Terra Nova through the grotto...Evan Clarke

[Steve M Hostetter]

wonderful I'd sure like to see them all

[claudiocambon]

400 of Hurley's glass plates were left underwater in the Endurance when the crew escaped in the lifeboats. All the Antarctic photos are amazing, I love Ponting's photo of the Terra Nova through the grotto...Evan Clarke

As an additional note (and not to highjack the thread), once the crew saw that the ice was going to "keep" the ship, Hurley dove into the ship to retrieve the negatives, and did an assortment then and there of what to keep and what to discard. In addition to the food and ammo, the next weighty item on the sleds were the negs!

[Brian Ellis]

wonderful I'd sure like to see them all

You can see many of Hurley's photographs in the book "The Endurance - Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition." It's a fascinating book completely apart from Hurley's incredible photographs.