TITLE: HERBERT PONTING ON FILM
1998 18 X 24 INCHES

Herbert Ponting:
1886 - 1974, British, Camera Artist.

Herbert Ponting followed his father into a banking career, but soon gave it
up to travel to the western United States. There he dabbled in farming, cattle
and gold mining. Ponting took up photography in 1900. Later he sailed for
the far east as a correspondent in the Russo-Japanese war. He was also a
correspondent in the Spanish-American war. He was a pioneer in photography as an
art form rather than just a means of recording events. By 1909 he had traveled
the world as a famous photographer. Much of his work was in the stereo
format, popular at the time

In the same year he met Commander Scott, and was appointed "camera artist" to
the Terra Nova expedition. Ponting disliked the word "photographer"
preferring to be called a "camera artist". He was the first photographer to travel to
Antarctica. His pictures, landscapes and portraits, are perhaps the greatest
ever taken of the Antarctic. He also created a film of the expedition titled '90 Degrees South'. In 1933
he re-made it into a sound version, with himself as on-camera host.