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Lot Essay
By 1909, when Robert Scott was selecting his men for his second Antarctic Expedition, Herbert Ponting was already a very well recognised out-door photographer. He agreed to join Scott on the British Antarctic Expedition (1910-1913) as the official photographer, and became the first still and movie photographer to go to the Polar region. He is today associated with the most evocative photographs of Antarctica.
H.J.P. Arnold said of this photograph 'The death of an iceberg - one of Ponting's greatest photographs and representing 'a berg in the last stage of decay from the action of the sun and currents'. It was taken during the period of the midnight sun early in 1911 when the photographer scarcely slept. Before securing this photograph, Ponting had a near-fatal accident when the ice melted beneath him and the heavy sledge to which he was harnessed'.
H.J.P. Arnold said of this photograph 'The death of an iceberg - one of Ponting's greatest photographs and representing 'a berg in the last stage of decay from the action of the sun and currents'. It was taken during the period of the midnight sun early in 1911 when the photographer scarcely slept. Before securing this photograph, Ponting had a near-fatal accident when the ice melted beneath him and the heavy sledge to which he was harnessed'.