People with an interest in exploration, expeditions, adventure have a higher likelihood of knowing who Captain Scott was. Only an expedition photography geek, a historian, or otherwise quirky know-it-all is likely be familiar with the name Ponting. Thankfully, such people exist and they have brought Ponting back from the archival grave. Outside magazine’s website has this collection on display. The captions follow in order of the slideshow above:
1. A program for Herbert Ponting’s lectures on Captain Scott. Ponting’s lectures, which accompanied his silent films at the Philharmonic Hall in London, were a huge success, with over 100,000 people going in to hear him, including leading politicians and celebrities of the day. His films were a significant milestone in the history of the cinema.
2. Foundering in soft snow. With Petty Officers Patrick Keohane and Thomas Crean now pushing and Lieutenant Henry Bowers and assistant biologist Apsley Cherry Garrard pulling, the team continues its attempt to move the sledge up the Beardmore and catch up with Lieutenant Edward Evans’ team, which can be seen in the distance. The depth of the snow in which the whole party struggled is all too clearly shown in this image. All thought them among the most difficult and trying conditions they had ever encountered.
3. Ponies on the march. The bright but dull conditions of the day posed technical problems for the cameras. Scott was clearly using different filters and exposures to ensure at least some competent images. Even those where the exposures might be deemed less good have provided extraordinarily evocative images.
4. Camp on the Ferrar Glacier, looking up the valley. Scott left Cape Evans with meteorologist George Simpson, Bowers, and PO Evans on 15 September 1911 and headed across McMurdo Sound to the Ferrar Glacier. In the left of this image, over the tent, is Descent Glacier, and beyond it, Cathedral Rocks. At the top of the visible glacier valley, Knobhead Mountain is clearly in view.
5. A group of officers from the Terra Nova.
6. The freezing of the sea, looking to Cape Barne from Cape Evans. This haunting image is full of majestic melancholy. By placing the camera at this spot, Ponting invites the viewer to feel the isolation of Scott and his men, who will now face the wrath of an Antarctic winter without communication from the outside world.
7. Dr. Edward Wilson sketching on the Beardmore Glacier. He was one of the last artists in the great expedition tradition in which the pencil was the main method of making records. He produced many yards of accurate geographical drawings, as well as extensive notes and sketches of anything of scientific interest.
8. In the pack ice. The first professional photographer in the Antarctic, Ponting was ‘in awe’ of its icescape and successfully transferred this into his work, defining the imagery of the polar regions for decades to come. Here, Ponting takes a portrait of himself photographing the Terra Nova stuck in the pack ice.
9. Pony Camp. Here, the remarkable physical effort to reach the South Pole is further revealed. The ten ponies are sheltered behind high walls of snow, which had to be constructed at the end of each day’s long march to protect them from the Barrier winds.
10. Looking up the Gateway from Camp 31, Shambles Camp. This was the end of the crossing of the Great Ice Barrier and the start of the ascent of the Beardmore Glacier. Now, as they stood before the Gateway at the mouth of the glacier, the weather finally cleared, giving bright and sunny conditions for photography.
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