Frank Hurley | AustLit: Discover Australian Stories

Frank Hurley Frank Hurley (A64992 works by) (a.k.a. James Francis Hurley; Captain Frank Hurley; Capt. Frank Hurley)
Born: Established: 1885 Sydney, New South Wales, ; Died: Ceased: 16 Jan 1962

Gender: Male

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BiographyHistory

At fourteen, Frank Hurley began work on the docks of Sydney and at seventeen bought his first camera. He taught himself the technical aspects of photography and set himself up in the postcard business.

Pioneer, photographer, motion picture producer and travel adventurer, Hurley was official photographer with the Mawson and Shackleton Antarctic expeditions on which his award winning children's book Shackleton's Argonauts (1948) was based. He was also an official war photographer in the first and second World Wars with the AIF.

He later travelled to Papua New Guinea and Tasmania, where he photographed more in a travelogue style and produced many books about Australia.

Hurley mounted a number of travelling multi-media exhibitions and produced a number of popular documentary film including In the Grip of the Polar Pack Ice, The Ross Smith Flight and Pearls and Savages.