Frank Hurley: A Photographer's Life [Hardcover]

Alasdair McGregor (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 460 pages
• Publisher: Viking (2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670888958
• ISBN-13: 978-0670888955
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 8 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,736,480 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars His trip on The Endurance was just the start, March 31, 2005

By 

Bruce in Toronto - See all my reviews

This review is from: Frank Hurley: A Photographer's Life (Hardcover)

A well written and exhaustively researched book. Not often is a biography a page-turner too. this one was.

After reading so many books about Ernest Shackleton and marveling at Hurley's striking photographs recording the epic Endurance expedition, it was illuminating to read this book. Alasdair is obviously a writer who crafts every sentence. I know this as my wife and I spent nineteen days on the Akademik Ioffe cruising the subantarctic islands and the Antarctic Peninsula in February 2005. Alasdair was one of the expedition guides and lecturers. Many a night I watched him preparing the next day's "Ship's Log," agonizing over the selection of the exactly correct word or phrase. Often while reading the book, I'd go back over a sentence simply to enjoy the poetry of the writing.

The subject matter, Hurley, was obviously a man who believed in the philosophy "that it's better to ask for forgiveness, than ask for permission." You can't accomplish excellence and uniqueness at the head of your profession by following the rules. Makes for quite a story.

The book is enhanced by numerous examples of Hurley's incomparable photographic genius.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Frank Hurley: A Photographers Life, March 29, 2005

By 

John Rosted - See all my reviews

This review is from: Frank Hurley: A Photographer's Life (Hardcover)

At last the definitive book on the extraordinary Australian photographer Frank Hurley. Hurleys is know for the photographic record he made with Sir Ernest Shackletons Endurance expedition of 1914 to 1916 but he had a career that spanned six decaded. He covered both World Wars One and Two and published many books but in all of this time, no one ever really knew the real Frank Hurley. Adventurer, artist, film maker, showman, he was an enigma and was definitly controversial.

Alasdair McGregor has done a superb job in researching this amazing man. He has not only gone into great depth to look for the man beneath the public face but told his tale in a detailed but fast paced manner. Once you start this book you won't be able to put it down.

I highly recomend it to anyone who wants to understand what drives a man to his physical and mental limits or just to know the story behind the man and the photographs.

A brilliant book.