Antarctica book

[John Cook]

I just stumbled upon a rather nice photography book by Pat and Rosemarie Keough. Thought y'all might like to take a peek.

http://www.keough-art.com/

[Matt Miller]

Stunning work. Thanks for the heads up John. The book is a bit out of my price range though.

[David R Munson]

Looks great - too bad I can't afford it! Or a book a tenth of the cost for that matter...

[Ken Cravillion]

Wow, thaks for showing us.

[QT Luong]

Although the production quality of this book looks outstanding, I must say that I liked the images of Antartica by Galen Rowell better.

[David Mark]

From what I can see of the photographs on line, it looks as though the Keoughs shot in 35 mm only. Frank Hurley, Shackleton's photogapher with the Endurance expidition, proved long ago that compelling large format photographs could be made even under the difficult conditions that prevail in Antarctica. The Keoughs make a great deal of the new methods used in printing the book to capture the fidelity of the original transparencies. Surely bigger negatives would have done more for the reproduction quality of the photographs than up-to-the-minute reproductions methods could ever do.

But perhaps the book does set new standards for reproductions from 35 mm. I would be very interested in a report from anyone who has the opportunity to inspect a copy of the book itself.

[Rosemarie Keough]

I am half of the duo that created the 27-pound tome ANTARCTICA: Explorer Series, Volume 1.

To answer David Mark, yes we did shoot 35mm, which proved the be the most flexible format for our purposes. In addition to taking photos while on the ice, we also shot from small aircraft and helicopters, and from the upper decks of vessels that rolled up to 48° in both directions while at sea. I shutter to think of using another format in the conditions that prevailed. Another factor was weight. We both carried our own equipment, without assistance. This meant porting over 60 pounds of camera gear on each outing, usually on our backs, with the balance of our equipment at our base - be it our tent while on the continent, or our cabin when operating from an ice-breaker. Between tripod, and a hefty beanbag, numerous bodies and lenses etc., I can can tell you that this weight was all that I care to deal with in remote wilderness locations. We have great admiration for the photography of Hurley and Ponting, also Hurley's cinematography. These men, while operating from the Ross Island Huts, and also in Hurley's case from the "Endurance" frozen into the pack-ice of the Weddell Sea, even used Glass Plates! They did have dog teams and sleds and other people to assist. They did not capture as holistic a view of the Antarctic as have we. As stated by British Antarctic Survey referring to the 345 images in our book: "This is the most impressive and evocative collection of photographs of Antarctica."

Although I salivate at the thought of what I could share with people had there been the ability to shoot in large format, especially when we're working towards mounting a major exhibition, I do believe that 35mm was the only practical format for us.

Rosemarie Keough