Fine Illustrated Books from Shapero Rare Books

Item 87 is a photograph, Midnight in the Antarctic Summer, by Herbert George Ponting. Ponting was a pioneer in polar photography, the first to mix polar photographic science and art. He was also the first professional photographer on an Antarctic exhibition. He accompanied Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic mission of 1910-1913. That was the one on which Scott hoped to be the first to reach the South Pole. He reached the pole, only to discover that Roald Amundsen had beaten him by a month. Then, with the weather turning much worse, Scott became trapped on the return trip from the pole and died before he could make it back. Ponting was a photographer, not expected to make difficult inland journeys, and returned safely home with his stash of photographs. £12,500 (US $18,941).

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