Young ladies by a pond, Japan (1907)
from the book In Lotus Land (1910)
Herbert Ponting Mount Fuji
This photograph is the opening image of Ponting’s ‘Japanese Studies’
collotyped by K. Ogawa F.R.P.S. in Tokyo in 1906.
It is accompanied by a quote from a Wordsworth poem:
‘A distant mountain’s head, Strewn with snow smooth as the
sky can shed, Shines like another sun.’
The Great wall of China (1907)
Ponting expanded his photographs of Japan into a 1910 book, In Lotus-land Japan. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS). His flair for journalism and ability to shape his photographic illustrations into a narrative led to his being signed as expedition photographer aboard the Terra Nova, the first time a professional photographer was included on an Antarctic expedition.
As a member of the shore party in early 1911, Ponting helped set up the Terra Nova Expedition's Antarctic winter camp at Cape Evans, Ross Island. The camp included a tiny photographic darkroom. Although the expedition came more than 20 years after the invention of photographic film, Ponting preferred high-quality images taken on glass plates.
Ponting was one of the first men to use a portable movie camera in Antarctica. The primitive device, called a cinematograph, could take short video sequences. Ponting also brought some autochrome plates to Antarctica and took some of the first known color still photographs there
Herbert Ponting photograph of icebergs from Scott's last expedition (1910)
Camp near Erebus, by Herbert George Ponting, 1911.
Members of the British Antarctic (“Terra Nova”) Expedition
unpacking provisions and getting their camp in order, in January 1911.
Ponting, Herbert George
The Terra Nova at the ice-foot, Cape Evans. 1911
Ponting, Herbert George, Scott's last expedition. The Castle Berg, 1910
Herbert George Ponting, Mt Erebus, Antarctica, 1911
Members of the British Antarctic (“Terra Nova”) Expedition
unpacking provisions and getting their camp in order, in January 1911.
Ponting, Herbert George
The Terra Nova at the ice-foot, Cape Evans. 1911
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