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Specifications

  • 84 pages printed in platinum-palladium.

  • Size : 35 x 40 x 3.2 cm

  • Limited edition: 18 + 1 Printer Proof + 3 Artist Proofs

Contents

  • Title page

  • Preface by the Editors

  • 30 photographs and panoramas with extracts from Captain Scott’s journals

  • Inventory of Captain Scott’s 112 Antarctic negatives

  • History of Captain Scott’s Antarctic negatives

  • Editorial notes

  • References

  • Colophon

Published by Salto Ulbeek in association with the Scott Polar Research Institute

Editors : Georges Charlier, Jean de Pomereu, Julian A. Dowdeswell

© Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge

© Salto Ulbeek Publishers

This project contributes to the environmental research and heritage activities of the Scott Polar Research Institute and the endowment funds that support these activities.

CAPTAIN SCOTT’S ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION 1910 -1913

The photographs of Captain Scott

A platinum-palladium printed bound volume published by Salto Ulbeek Publishers in association with the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge.

Printed from the Captain Scott’s original glass plate and cellulose nitrate negatives kept at the Scott Polar Research Institute, this volume contributes a new historical and aesthetic appreciation of Captain Scott’s Antarctic photographs, and secures the material and visual legacy of his British Antarctic (Terra Nova) Expedition, 1910-1913.

The British Antarctic Expedition, 1910-1913, on which Captain Robert Falcon Scott and four of his companions perished whilst returning from the South Pole is one of the most poignant chapters in the history of human exploration. Like his diary, which is regarded to be one of the treasures of the British Library, the photographs taken by Scott during his journey to the South Pole carry us back to the heart of the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration.

Although a unique series of contact prints from the 1930s were already owned by the Scott Polar Research Institute, the original 10x7cm glass plate and celluloid negatives taken by Captain Scott were thought lost until a private collector offered them for sale in 2014 and the Institute was able to purchase them through a public appeal.

Captain Scott learned the basics of photographic technique and composition from the official expedition photographer, Herbert Ponting. He captured subjects that include his companions, the ponies and sledges, the scientific work they were undertaking, and the magnificent Antarctic landscape. He also composed multi-frame panoramas, something that even Ponting had never attempted. His last photographs were taken on the Beardmore Glacier, prior to his camera and exposed negatives being sent back with the last support party.

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