Profile: Herbert G. Ponting

Abstract

Abstract Herbert Ponting, Robert Falcon Scott's photographer and cinematographer on the Terra Nova expedition, was the first specialized, professional photographer to accompany a polar expedition. Born in 1870, he had already acquired an international reputation as a travel writer and photographer before joining Scott in 1910. His personality did not mesh readily with those of other expedition members, but in his film 90° North Ponting produced what is arguably the finest travel documentary before Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North. His work compares favourably with professional film records of much later exploration, for example those of Hillary and Tenzing on Everest in 1953. After his year in Antarctica he produced various versions of the film, and undertook a number of unsuccessful enterprises. He died in 1935. We can still learn from the work of this pompous British photographic artist from the early years of the century.

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