Herbert Ponting “The Journey South” – Getty Images Gallery, London
Getty Images Gallery, London
Herbert Ponting – “The Journey South”
Photographic exhibition marks centenary of Scott’s voyage to South Pole
4th February – 6th March
Marking the centenary of Scott’s epic voyage to the South Pole, the Getty Images Gallery, in association with the Scott Polar Research Institute, is presenting a new photographic exhibition which will feature the work of Herbert Ponting, the photographer who accompanied the expedition.
Herbert Ponting
H,G Ponting, Captain Scott+s Antarctic Expedition 1910 – 1912, 7th January, 1911.
Beautiful ice reflections in the water with the Terra Nova ship in the background, “Death of an iceberg”
(Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images)
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Herbert Ponting’s beautiful and graphic photographs record the conditions faced by Robert Falcon Scott’s team of men before their final push to the pole and before tragedy ultimately struck in 1912. Ponting also captured the stark beauty of Antarctica 100 years ago, in a series of landscape shots which remain iconic and timeless to this day.
The collection provides a stirring testament to the heroism and bravery of all involved and perfectly encapsulates the spirit of adventure and discovery that marked the epic journey. The glass plate negatives from which these images are taken are preserved in the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge. This part of the collection is represented by Getty Images.
Herbert Ponting was a self-taught photographer who spent time travelling through the Far East, photographing people and places, before joining the crew of the Terra Nova on their journey south. He recorded the difficult living conditions under which the expedition members and their animals lived and worked.
Herbert Ponting
H,G Ponting, Captain Scott+s Antarctic Expedition 1910 – 1912, 2nd December, 1911.
The ice cliffs at the end of the Barne Glacier with Mount Erebus in the background (Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images)
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Herbert Ponting
H,G Ponting, Captain Scott+s Antarctic Expedition 1911 – 1912, 5th January, 1911.
A view inside an ice grotto showing the “Terra Nova” ship in the distance as Taylor and Wright stand inside (Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images)
© All rights reserved
Among the incredible collection of images is a photograph entitled “The Tenements”, showing the cramped bunks in Winterquarters Hut, which made up the living conditions of the team. Another image shows Evans and Crean sitting in front of shelves stacked with boxes mending their sleeping bags whilst smoking a pipe. Lieut Evans is also pictured observing Jupiter through a telescope in the middle of the night, whilst dressed in a balaclava and heavy overcoat. Herbert Ponting himself is also captured working in the dark room and posing with his cinematograph (the tripod mounted film camera that he used to record the voyage).
Ponting’s brief was to also satisfy the expedition’s sponsors and so the collection includes humorous, advert-like images of crew members consuming Heinz baked beans and Fry’s chocolate. In one image, an expedition member sits on two boxes marked ‘Heinz Baked Beans’, on the snow. He holds a can in one hand and a spoon in the other.
Herbert Ponting
H,G Ponting, Captain Scott+s Antarctic Expedition 1910 – 1912, 7th February, 1911.
A sledging party enjoy a meal of Colman’s Corn Flour, while briefly stopping for a break on their march (Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images)
© All rights reserved
Courtesy Getty Images Gallery
Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images
Images © All rights reserved
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