Frank Hurley lived an extraordinary life of adventure that straddled the Heroic Age of Discovery and the social political upheaval wrought by World War One. After running away from home at 12 he became one of the world’s most accomplished photographers. He reached the South Magnetic Pole in 1912 and was in the search party sent to find Douglas Mawson. He was marooned with Sir Ernest Shackleton on the ice. He was Official AIF Photographer with Charles Bean at the Third Battle of Ypres and later in the war rode with the Light Horse in Palestine. He explored Papua by flying boat in the 1920s and was with the Australian forces at Tobruk and El Alamein in the Second World War.
Despite the “boy’s own” adventurous life and marriage with four children he was a loner and a controversial figure clashing with Mawson, Shackleton, Bean and authorities generally. In particular his enduring reputation was affected by criticism that his composite pictures were “fakes”.
His stoicism and reserve gave few clues to his own personal struggles and his curmudgeonly behaviour. What influences were there in his upbringing, the deprivations of the Shackleton expedition and the trauma of Ypres? Did Frank Hurley display traits of Asperger’s syndrome? He was certainly a perfectionist dedicated to photography and film making. His story says much about the nature of heroism, conflict in society and the perception of truth in photography and history.
See: Frank Hurley’s Photographs
Read more about Frank in my book, Endurance