birth_date: 1885-10-15 00:00:00
avg_rating: 4.26
name: Frank Hurley
about: Captain James Francis (Frank) Hurley, OBE was an adventurer and photographer.At the beginning of Hurley's career, the explorer Douglas Mawson "took a chance on the confident young man. And so did Kodak. Hurley, whose postcard business was suffering through a recession, was in debt to a local branch of Kodak. The Kodak manager provided photographic equipment, and Hurley went off on the Mawson expedition in 1911."(Kodak: Biography of Frank Hurley).Before World War I, Hurley would make six trips to the Antarctic with early famed explorers creating some of the most renowned images of polar exploration and survival. Lionel Greenstreet, First Officer of the Endurance, said of him: “Hurley is a warrior with his camera &amp; would go anywhere or do any Captain James Francis (Frank) Hurley, OBE was an adventurer and photographer.At the beginning of Hurley's career, the explorer Douglas Mawson "took a chance on the confident young man. And so did Kodak. Hurley, whose postcard business was suffering through a recession, was in debt to a local branch of Kodak. The Kodak manager provided photographic equipment, and Hurley went off on the Mawson expedition in 1911."(Kodak: Biography of Frank Hurley).Before World War I, Hurley would make six trips to the Antarctic with early famed explorers creating some of the most renowned images of polar exploration and survival. Lionel Greenstreet, First Officer of the Endurance, said of him: “Hurley is a warrior with his camera &amp; would go anywhere or do anything to get a picture.” In 1917, Hurley became an Australian Imperial Force (AIF) official photographer with the honorary rank of captain. He served with fellow Australian film-maker/photographer Hubert Wilkins under Charles Bean in the Australian War Records Section documenting the indescribable carnage and condition of the trenches. Hurley's task was purportedly to take propaganda photos that would help promote the war effort, Wilkins' was to gather a documentary record of men and events but the two traveled together and both took great risks on the battlefield. Hurley would photograph the war in France (including the Third Battle of Ypres aka Passchendaele), as well as later in Palestine and Cairo. He married Antoinette Leighton April 11th, 1918 then returned to London to work on an exhibition of Australian war photography. After the war he made trips to the Antarctic, and to the Torres Strait Strait and New Guinea. He flew with Ross Smith, the legendary fighter ace he knew from the Palestinian Theatre. He returned to Europe on several occasions and visited the United States. During the 1930s Hurley worked in Sydney for Cinesound, then in 1940, Hurley resumed war photography with the AIF in the Middle East where he would remain til 1946. On January 16, 1962, "at the age of 76, he came home from an assignment lugging his battered old camera case. He sat down and, uncharacteristically, said he did not feel well. He sat there all night and died next day." (Kodak: Biography of Frank Hurley). ...more
death_date: 1962-01-16 00:00:00