Over the past 20 or so years my primary interest in Hurley’s photography has become the creation and maintenance of a knowledge base of his Endurance work. Along the way I got sidetracked into puzzling when, exactly, some photos were taken. I used to say I fell into a funnel trying to date-place photos. Problem is, I’m still stuck in there trying to escape...


I’ve inspected much of the available archival material on the Endurance. I’ve transcribed several of the expedition diaries and written and produced two electronic books about the expedition and its photos — Shackleton’s Photographer and List of Images. This body of work goes largely unknown primarily, I think, because of its format which is CD-ROM in .pdf. I also wrote the Expedition Story and captioned the photos for the coffee table sized (and priced) book South With Endurance (Simon & Schuster, 2001).

Endurance in the Pride of her Youth

Paget colour plate.

Shane Murphy 4320 E Beaver Creek Road, Rimrock, AZ  86335

shanemurphy@me.com

Abandon ship, 27 October, 1915

Colored screen capture of original cine footage.

I’ve worked on Endurance projects with

well-known authors, filmmakers, magazine editors, researchers, archival curators and librarians, and have lectured to museum audiences, the Australian Antarctic Division, and to groups on ships in Antarctica. I’ve spent an ungodly amount of time examining and/or pondering the 537 (or so) surviving Endurance photos and cinematograph footage, and can only say that without Hurley’s dogged, inventive and wily perseverance, there would be only a handful of Endurance images.

And, no movies.

Although I know Hurley well,  I’m not especially comfortable with our relationship. While he was friendly enough, he was all business at the same time. His family barely knew him. They were, for instance, unaware he kept diaries until his death. Frank was a loner, off with his cameras and diaries, away from his wife and children sometimes for years on end, always in pursuit of the ‘perfect picture.’ Frank Hurley was a photographer. That was all he ever wanted to be. As a young man he was captured by the ruby lamp of the darkroom. He never looked back.


Hurley was a tireless self promoter. Embellishing his truth was common but, it must be said, unnecessary. In his time, Hurley was an Australian hero; he is still regarded as such by many. And, like similar men, he was occasionally surrounded by controversy. An excellent example of Hurley’s myth-making is the tale of being on a “T-model” Ford trip to the Gulf of Carpentaria with legendary Australian explorer Francis Birtles. There, near Burketown, he writes in various accounts usually failing to mention Birtles, an aborigine appeared from the bush to hand him a letter from Sir Ernest Shackleton. He was invited to join the Endurance expedition! With that, he “hastened day and night” across continents and oceans to meet the ship in Buenos Aires.

He was with Birtles. That part is true. Their 6,000 mile motor trip from Sydney to Burketown and back was a remarkable journey in and of itself, and it’s surprising Hurley did not devote more time to it with pen and paper. But Shackleton had already hired him. Shackleton’s proposed manifest presented itself in the London Daily Chronicle on 16 July, 1914 and right there he is, plain as day. That’s because he had applied to join Shackleton about 6 March of the same year, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.   


For more of Hurley’s embellishments see his article in the New York Times on the Blog page.

FrankHurley.Org is a non-commercial forum and web-based resource which aims to explore and make known the work of Australian photographer Frank Hurley during Ernest Shackleton’s fabled Endurance expedition to Antarctica, 1914-1917.


Visitor comments, criticisms and insights are always welcomed and appreciated.

                                              —Shane Murphy

Frank Hurley, Feby 7, 1915

Photo by Orde-Lees.

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