While working in Antarctica last season I was asked to do a project for the Antarctic Heritage Trust NZ. This non-profit organization is the group who is responsible for the restoration and continued upkeep of the the historic huts and monuments located on and around the Ross Sea. The request came after I offered some photos to the Trust which I had shot the previous season. These photos were mostly of the outside of Captain Robert Falcon Scott' huts at Cape Evans and Hut Point and Ernest Shackleton's hut at Cape Royds. The project was to provide some photos of the conservators working on the huts and artifacts. It turns out that conservators are really good at shooting photos of the items they are conserving, but not of themselves conducting the work. I was able to shoot these photos on my free time and donated my services to the Trust. Without the work of the Antarctic Heritage Trust these huts would not be in the amazing condition that they are in today.
The first part of the project was to shoot photos of the major restoration project being undertaken at Scott's Discovery Hut located on Hut Point. Information can be found on Scott's Discovery Hut at: http://www.nzaht.org/AHT/HistoryHutPoint/ The restoration of this hut includes removal of the floors and leveling of the entire structure that has been damaged by snow and ice buildup beneath the building. In addition it included removal of all the items inside the hut and the cataloging and restoration of each.
In addition to the work being conducted at the Discovery Hut, work continued this season at Captain Scott's second hut located at Cape Evans. The Terra Nova hut has undergone a similar complete restoration over the last several Antarctic summer seasons and work this year focused on restoration of items within the hut and return all of the items that had been removed for restoration over the winter. The number of items that have been restored and cataloged in this hut is staggering and has been an huge undertaking for the Trust. One can get a sense of the number of items in some of the photos below. This is also the hut where the long lost negatives were found that made news earlier this year. Info on the negatives can be found here. My work was to shoot some photos of the conservators returning the items to the hut and some of the restoration being done on items removed.
This was an amazing project to be a part of and I want to thank the NZ Antarctic Heritage Trust for all their hard work preserving these buildings for future generations to enjoy. I have an agreement with the Trust that 50% of any photos sold of these three buildings will be donated to Antarctic Heritage Trust, so please order one of the prints below and support an amazing group of people doing amazing work.
Earnest Shackleton's Hut at Cape Royds, Antarctica.
Inside Earnest Shackleton's Hut at Cape Royds, Antarctica.
Captain Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova Hut, Cape Evans, Antarctica.
Captain Scott's Discovery Hut, Hut Point Peninsula, Antarctica.
The website for the Antarctic Heritage Trust can be found here: http://www.nzaht.org