'A Blizzard'
A large vintage green-toned carbon print (335 × 435 mm, flush-cut on the original thick card mount), recently matted (visible image size 325 × 419 mm), ready for framing (or long-term storage in its custom-made Mylar sleeve).
Light discolouration to a thin strip along the bottom edge; minimal expert conservation to a short scratch in the bottom left-hand corner; overall, in excellent condition.
This classic image shows assistant medical officer Leslie Whetter and assistant collector John Close cutting ice for use in the nearby Winter Quarters (visible in the background). This prosaic description captures none of the awesome beauty of the scene. 'As Hurley noted, "no conditions could have been more unsuited to photography" and he described being bodily picked up with his camera and flung about by the terrible winds. Hurley considered this print to be one of his most successful and he took care with it in the darkroom, enhancing the atmospheric effects' (National Gallery of Australia). This vintage print comes from the original 1915 Australian exhibition of Hurley photographs; this was a slightly larger version of the London exhibition held earlier in the same year. The label of the Fine Art Society, New Bond Street, London is on the verso of this print, with the title (as above) and the catalogue reference number 69 added in ink. The full title of the Australian exhibition catalogue is 'Exhibition of Unique Photographic Pictures taken during the Australasian Antarctic Expedition. Also other Photographic Studies by Frank Hurley' (small octavo, 16 pages plus 8 full-page plates and the title wrappers; printed in Adelaide by G. Hassell & Son). A small advertisement appeared in the Adelaide 'Advertiser' on Saturday 25 September 1915, announcing a 'South Polar Exhibit.... until October 6. This Exhibition is your only opportunity of viewing Historical Relics of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, and Frank Hurley's Unexcelled Photographic Reproductions'. Provenance: Ainslie Roberts AM (1911-1993, surrealist painter, illustrator and photographer; president of the Adelaide Camera Club, 1944-45, and life member from 1945); by descent.
Item #122907
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