Disney documentary Resistance celebrates the remarkable achievement of Sir Ernest Shackleton, the British explorer who, in 1914, attempted the first trans-Antarctic crossing, only to crash in brutal weather and ice. Shackleton’s ship, Resistancewas lost in the effort, but the Englishman’s greatest achievement was saving the lives of all 27 Resistance crew members despite a treacherous 800-mile journey through sea and snow. Among this team was Australian photographer and cinematographer Frank Hurley.who was commissioned to produce still and moving images to celebrate and commemorate the adventure.
Hurley was a safe bet for Shackleton, having already worked on Antarctica in Douglas Mawson’s 1911 Australasian Antarctic Expedition, spending three years in the icy desert. Hurley produced a documentary about this experience Blizzard House. At 29 years of age, Hurley had the credentials to realize Shackleton’s public relations vision, which the former magazine journalist realized was the lifeblood of a money-hungry expedition. Hurley’s work is an indispensable element of Resistance, bringing to life the real and brutal conditions that Shackleton and his men experienced between 1914 and 1916.
Explanation of Frank Hurley’s photography and cinematography in Shackleton’s resistance expedition
Hurley’s photography was groundbreaking
To secure Hurley’s services, Shackleton offered him 25% of the expedition’s film rights. Hurley jumped at the opportunity, traveling with about seven different people Kodak cameras and two motion picture cameras, along with a mix of tripods, lenses, black and white film, and developing gear. Most of his photos were taken on glass plates. However, when the Endurance sank in 1915, most of her equipment was lost with the ship, for shackleton. with. He managed to salvage a portable Kodak Vest Pocket and three rolls of film and was only able to take 38 more photos of the crew’s miraculous nine-month journey to safety.
Fortunately, of the 500 or so glass plate negatives he took, he managed to save 120, which are now held at the State Library of New South Wales. Hurley. Back in civilization, Hurley gathered all of his materials from Shackleton’s expedition into a documentary, South, which he produced in 1919. Hurley’s work is characterized by an uncompromising attitude to getting the best shot possible, regardless of the dangers involved. He also played his part in Shackleton’s crew and was one of 22 men who stayed on Elephant Island for four months waiting for Shackleton’s return and rescue.
Frank Hurley’s role in two world wars
Hurley was an appointed photographer during both world wars
Having survived Antarctica, less than a year later Hurley was in France with the Australian Imperial Force to film Australian soldiers fighting at Passchendaele – His photograph of the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917 earned him the honorary title of captain. However, his time at the AIF ended controversially when he was accused of creating composite photographs (montages) for his London exhibition in 1918. Australian war images and photographs. Hurley argued that his methods “illustrate to the public the things our comrades do and how war is conducted“, while the AIF labeled his photograph as fake.
Undeterred, Hurley took on a role in the Second World War as head of the Photographic Unit of the Australian Department of Information, based in Cairo from 1940-1943. His groundbreaking films about the victory over the Italians at Sidi Barrani in 1940, the battle of Bardia and the siege of Tobruk in 1941and the 1942 Battle of Al Alamein were released globally by Cinesound and Movietone News. In 1943, he joined the British Ministry of Information, covering a region from Libya to Persia. In September 1946 and at the end of the war, with a number of documentary credits to his name, Frank Hurley returned to Australia, according to legionmagazine.com.
Frank Hurley worked on documentaries and films before his death in 1962
Hurley was a photographer and filmmaker until the end
Much of Hurley’s best-known documentary work was produced between the wars, including Pearls and Wilds, The Hound of the Deep, Siege of the South, A nation is builtand 40,000 horsemen, all made between the 1920s and 1940s. Upon returning to Australia, he wrote and directed several feature films and worked on sets as a director of photography. He also produced his war diaries, which left a literary as well as photographic legacy, in which he graphically described the horrors of war.: “The exaggerated machinations of hell are here typified,” he wrote, “everywhere the ground is littered with pieces of weapons, bayonets, grenades, and men..”
The photographs are unique for the views Hurley finds on the vast white backdrop of Antarctica.
In Resistance, Hurley’s films and photographs of Shackleton’s doomed expedition support the historical images of the crew’s heroic struggle for survival in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. The photographs, in particular, are unique for the vantage points Hurley finds on the vast white backdrop of Antarctica to produce such dramatic and precise compositions. Frank Hurley died on January 21, 1962, aged 76, while still taking photographs.
Sources: shackleton. with, legionmagazine.com