ABC TV 7:30pm Sunday, August 7

[embi]

Thought some of you might like to know about this.

Frank Hurley: The Man Who Made History

Frank Hurley: The Man Who Made History tells the story of one of the last great imperial adventurers, Australian photographer, Frank Hurley. It retraces Hurley's footsteps across the globe at a time when the world was a much different place.

Hurley captured images of the world's most remote place, the Antarctic, and his pictures are now amongst the most valuable ever taken. However, it now appears that some of them were elaborate fakes.

Hurley was the photographer on Ernest Shackleton's doomed Endurance expedition to the Antarctic. He also photographed both World Wars, explored New Guinea and enjoyed a long career as the visual chronicler of his homeland Australia.

He pioneered the use of colour photography, helped invent the documentary film, and risked his life to bring back images from some of the great events of the 20th century. However, experts are divided over this master of illusion - was he a giant of photography or just a conjurer with a camera?

Hurley's manipulations and uncompromising attitudes would cause conflict throughout his career. His extraordinary World War 1 images of the bloody battle of Passchendaele are considered amongst the finest war images ever taken. His technique of combining images from different negatives into a single, dramatic tableau branded them 'fakes' by his superiors and even today the controversy continues over their value as historical records.

Later in life, Hurley became a prolific landscape photographer of Australia. He died at age 76 in 1962 and, with the world once more searching for heroes, his photographs are in demand again.

[Sheetshooter]

Yes, Hurley was an Australian giant in the early days of photography and I recall London being awash with promotion for his exhibition at the maritime Museum in Greenwich when I was there in 2000. It was one of the cultural aspects of the Sydney Olympics and the attention it brought.

Ironic, however, that this doco is up against 60 MINUTES which his grandson is the Executive Producer of.

[daniel_r]

Yep, I was excited when I saw the advert the other night for this - hopefully the narration/commentry doesn't get too strung up on the issue of the staged war shots.

Unfortunately a lot of Hurley commentry focusses on the staged shots rather than examining the brilliance of his other non-war work (especially the photographic challenges posed in the Shackleton and Mawson expeditions).

Highly recommended:
Frank Hurley, A photographer's Life
Alasdair McGregor
Viking (Penguin) Press, 2004
ISBN 0 670 88895 8

Beautifully printed with some truly inspirational shots.

[rjlhughes]

Ah yes, they seemed to miss the point that he was a very talented and hard working photographer....or at least perhaps not give it the credit it deserved.

How many picture takers can be seen as iconographers as he was?

But on balance - great to see ABC TV exciting people's interest in our field.

And the idea that he reinvented himself at, what, 61 years old - now that's inspirational.

[embi]

Quite a good doco.

The first and last bits more interesting from a photography perspective in my opinion. I thought they showed a lot of film rater than photography though.

Some awesome images of the Shackleton expedition.

[cyanide]

I had come across the website of Shackleton's trip earlier this year... then in April during a visit to England, by chance I went to a castle whose past owners were related to one of the members of the expedition (Sir Philip Brocklehurst, assistant geologist) ... there I saw more photos of this expedition....

In that exhibition, one description I found fascinating was the narrative about when the group had to leave the (stranded and sinking) ship, and how Hurley had to first of all dive into the frigid water to rescue his negative plates from inside the hull... and then had the agonising decision of which ones to select to carry with them on their overland trek, and which to leave behind... (given that the negative plates were glass and therefore quite heavy)... he went through and as he eliminated particular negative plates, he would break them then and there, "to avoid the temptation to come back to them again" (ie and make the decision process longer...).

Fascinating story. Wish I could have watched the doco.

[nito]

DOH! Missed it!

[embi]

In that exhibition, one description I found fascinating was the narrative about when the group had to leave the (stranded and sinking) ship, and how Hurley had to first of all dive into the frigid water to rescue his negative plates from inside the hull... and then had the agonising decision of which ones to select to carry with them on their overland trek, and which to leave behind... (given that the negative plates were glass and therefore quite heavy)... he went through and as he eliminated particular negative plates, he would break them then and there, "to avoid the temptation to come back to them again" (ie and make the decision process longer...).

They talked about that in the doco. I think it was 400 plates he left behind. They also said that in the lifeboats at one stage it was throw the food or throw the plates....you guessed it....the food went overboard

[spartikus]

Pretty amazing look at an amazing life. It's unfortunately often the case with extremely artistic and creative people that they become recluses or branded as "strange" - Hurley was obviously way ahead of the photography curve. Being a child of the digital age, I found it fascinating seeing his dark room techniques and overlaying of various shots to create an effect - I think I'd still rather use Photoshop!