Captain James Francis (Frank) Hurley OBE

Description

James Francis Hurley was born at Glebe, Sydney, in 1885 and became interested in photography as a young man. He began his career with a Sydney postcard company at the age of 20 in 1905.

Hurley grew to regard photography as a medium that could be manipulated to achieve a desired effect and he began to follow the well-established practice of making composite prints by combining two or more negatives to make an image. He was also a proponent of colour photography. An inveterate traveller, Hurley was on one of his six trips to the Antarctic; the famous Shackleton expedition of 1914-16, when the First World War began. In 1917, he became one of the AIF's official photographers with the honorary rank of captain.

Some of Hurley's most famous images of the war were taken during the Passchendaele campaign in the second half of 1917. He ran considerable risks to get his shots, earning the name 'the mad photographer' from the troops. War affected Hurley deeply but he also found the battlefield fascinating.

A self-described "showman", Hurley had spent years producing popular attractions using the latest photographic and film techniques, and he was confident that he knew which images would engage the public's imagination. His methods, particularly his use of composites, led to arguments with the influential Charles Bean and, at one stage, Hurley threatened to resign rather than give up the practice. A compromise was reached, but in late 1917, Hurley was sent to Palestine.

He took many well-known images of the Australian Light Horse and the Australian Flying Corps, finding the relative peace there in stark contrast to what he called 'the hell of France'. He stayed just six weeks, then went to Cairo where he met Antoinette Leighton. They married on 11 April 1918 and Hurley returned to London to work on an exhibition of Australian war photography.

After the war, Hurley made further trips to the Antarctic, and to the Torres Strait and New Guinea. He flew with Ross Smith, returned to Europe on several occasions and visited the United States. Many of his photographic and film projects received both critical acclaim and commercial success. For much of the 1930s he worked in Sydney for Cinesound, but in 1940 Hurley resumed war photography with the AIF in the Middle East. His work was, however, overshadowed by that of younger men like Damien Parer and George Silk, who found Hurley's methods outdated. He remained in the Middle East until 1946.

For the rest of his life, Hurley continued travelling and taking photographs, publishing several books of his work. Always a loner, Hurley nevertheless influenced later generations of photographers, and his work - taken all over the world over almost six decades - remains very much in the public eye. He died in Sydney in 1962.

Details

First name/s

James Francis (Frank)

Last name

Hurley

Final rank

Captain

Date of Birth

15/10/1885

Place of Birth

Glebe

Date of Enlistment

17/08/1917

Date returned to Australia

1918

Date of Death

16/01/1962

Place of Death

Sydney

Ranks held

Conflicts

People

Units

Service

Places

Tags and Groups

Rolls

Roll Type	Unit	Rank	Conflict
Honours and Awards	Staff	Captain	First World War, 1914-1918
Honours and Awards (Recommendation)	Australian War Records Section	Captain	First World War, 1914-1918
First World War Nominal Roll	AIF Administrative Headquarters	Captain	First World War, 1914-1918

Gazettes

Commonwealth Gazette

24 October 1918

London Gazette

28 May 1918

Other references

Biographical information The Oxford companion to Australian military history in 1995

Captain James Francis (Frank) Hurley OBE

P01184.019

Timeline

15/10/1885: Glebe, NSW.
15/10/1885: Date of birth
1899: Began work on the docks in Sydney.
1902: Bought first camera.
1905: Began work with a Sydney postcard company.
1910: Held first exhibition of his work.
1911: Douglas Mawson invited Hurley to be the photographer for the Australasian Antarctic Expedition.
1914 - 1916: Was on one of his six trips to the Antarctic, the famous Shackleton expedition, when the First World War began.
1914: He joined the Antarctic expedition led by Sir Ernest Shackleton, the British Trans-Antartic Expedition, and took the famous photographs of the destruction of the Endurance.
30/06/1914: Silver Polar Medal, for his work as the photographer with Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition.
1916: Returned to England.
30/06/1916: Silver Polar Medal, for his work as the photographer with Shackleton's British Trans-Antartic Expedition.
1917: Joined the AIF as an official Australian War Records Cinematographer and Photographer and worked in France, Belgium and Palestine. He was given the honorary rank of captain.
17/08/1917: Date of enlistment
26/10/1917: Date of recommendation honour or award
1918: Date returned to Australia
28/05/1918: Mention in Despatches.
11/07/1918: Date of discharge
11/07/1918: AIF appointment ended.
1919: Joined Ross Smith on the final leg of his flight from England, filming Australia from the air.
1920 - 1923: Made two long expeditions to the Torres Strait Islands and Papua and produced both a film and a book with the title Pearls and savages.
1929: Returned to the Antarctic as a photographer with the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition.
01/05/1934: Bronze Polar Medal for his work as the photographer with the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition.
1940 - 1946: Hurley resumed war photography, with the AIF in the Middle East.
12/06/1941: Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for his work as Official War Photographer wth the AIF.
1948: Published Shackleton's Argonauts.
16/01/1962: Sydney, NSW.
16/01/1962: Date of death