skip to primary navigation skip to content
 

Platinum Palladium Editions

Platinum Palladium Editions

Thanks to a collaboration between the Scott Polar Research Institute and Salto Ulbeek Publishers, some of the most important photographic negatives in the history of Antarctic exploration are for the first time being printed and published using the platinum palladium printing process.

Renowned for its exceptional aesthetic and archival properties, platinum palladium printing provides an enhanced visualization of historic photographs and ensures their physical preservation beyond the chemical possibility of the glass plate or celluloid negatives on which they were originally captured.

The limited edition prints and folios published by Salto Ulbeek and the Scott Polar Research Institute are all made from the original negatives held in the archives of the Institute.

Sales of prints and folios contribute to the environmental research and heritage activities of the Scott Polar Research Institute and to the endowment funds that support these activities.

Limited edition prints and folios are available from the following collections of photographic negatives below.

For more information on the editions and how to purchase them, please contact Professor Neil Arnold <director@spri.cam.ac.uk>.

Ponting Portfolio

Photographs taken by Herbert Ponting during Captain Scott's British Antarctic (Terra Nova) Expedition, 1910-1913

These photographs constitute one of the most famous and compelling visual records in the history of human exploration with images ranging from sublime icescapes to more intimate portraits and photographs of life inside the expedition's wintering hut at Cape Evans.

Ponting's magnificent compositions captured for the most part on large-format glass plate negatives highlight both his talent as a 'camera artist' and the significance of the enterprise Scott was documenting.

This project comprises single platinum palladium prints, as well as a portfolio of 48 prints and accompanying essays.

Ponting Portfolio

Photographs taken by Captain Robert Falcon Scott during his British Antarctic (Terra Nova) Expedition, 1910-1913

Like his diary, which is regarded to be one of the treasures of the British Library, the photographs captured by Captain Scott during his journey to the Pole provide us with a personal glimpse into one of the most poignant chapters in the history of exploration. Having learned the basics of photographic technique and composition from Herbert Ponting, Scott captured subjects that included his companions, the ponies and sledges, the scientific work they were undertaking, and the magnificent Antarctic landscape.

He also composed multi-frame panoramas that are now available as platinum palladium prints along with twenty-five other photographs selected from the collection of 113 original medium-format glass plate and celluloid negatives that were purchased by the Scott Polar Research Institute in 2014.

Photographs taken by Frank Hurley taken during Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic (Endurance) Expedition of 1914-1917

Captured on large-format glass plate negatives prior to the Endurance's sinking and thereafter on medium-format celluloid negatives, Hurley's photographs document the grandeur, drama and struggles of one of the greatest survival stories of all time. Although a majority of Hurley's original negatives are preserved at the Royal Geographical Society in London, the Scott Polar Research Institute's collections comprise several dozen key negatives taken on the Endurance's stopover in South Georgia, during its entrapment in the pack ice of the Weddell Sea, around the time of its sinking, and whilst the crew awaited rescue on Elephant Island.

A selection of the photographs kept in the SPRI collection are available as single platinum palladium prints.