Images on Ice

the negatives                                                             Antarctic Heritage Trust

We all watched footage of the 52 adventurers recently stranded in the Antarctic as they sang and chanted their way through the days leading up to their rescue. Imagine trying to explore an area as inhospitable as that before the invention of polypropylene, GPS, satellite communication systems, and energy bars. And yet, people did ~ and many of those stories did not turn out as happily as the above-mentioned one.
   Last year, a team from the Antarctic Heritage Trust in New Zealand made an exciting discovery. In a corner of one of the supply depots set up by members of Robert Scott's doomed Terre Nova Expedition and later used by a group from Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-1917), they found a box containing 22 negatives. The negatives were frozen together, and some were moldy, but they have been restored. The story of the men who left them behind, some of whom are seen in the pictures, is gripping (story, link to slideshow of the photos): http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/12/27/on-ice-100-year-old-negative-discovered-in-antarctic-ice
   A slideshow of more contemporary photographs: those taken by a photographer aboard the now-rescued M.V. Akademik Shokalskiy: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/12/pictures/131230-antarctica-trapped-ship-ice-boat-science/#/5-antarctica-ship-stranded-pictures-peacock_74924_600x450.jpg