Still Life

I was unaware that the United Nations reach does not extend to Antarctica, and for that reason the historic huts of Scott & Shackleton, and Discovery Hut (another of Scott's huts, from an earlier expedition). For this reason the upkeep of the huts has fallen to the Antarctic Heritage Trust, who have taken on the responsibility (although they were British expeditions which built them).

This book is something or a piece of art itself. It has a cover clad in woven fabric, like hessian but it is grey with bleached off section, with a stitched on label with the title on it. Within, the photographic pages are black, high gloss and there are many fold out pictures which offer a four page spread.

While it is largely a photography book, there are a number of what are described in the book as essays, by Nigel Watson. It is no disrespect to Watson that the photographs are the hero of this book, and the essays are interesting asides, but do not set out to provide a full narrative of the men or their expeditions. Much of the text (and there are many quotations from various expedition members) is themed around the huts. The expedition members quotations relate to how they lived in the hut, the expedition gear and research equipment, even the food stores etc feature heavily, as well as things like the cooking equipment, the heating etc.

The photography is incredible, but most of it is probably not what one expects. There are a few landscapes, featuring the hut, some exterior shots of course, but the vast majority of the photographs are closeups of the historic, yet everyday items (and many unusual ones - Emperor penguin feet as an example, having had taxidermy carried out on them, and they remain on a workbench).

In 2007, the Government of New Zealand (after a jolly to the ice for then Prime Minister Helen Clark) determined they needed to comprehensively document the huts, as a part of maintaining them - a role the trust carries out. Jane Ussher was approached and given the opportunity to travel there for this purpose. This publication is the result of some of those photographs.

My purpose in opening this book is not reading the words, but enjoying the photographs, although I have done both. The detail in the photographs interested me since the first time I flicked through this book in 2010 when it was published, and I was very pleased to recently have picked up a copy.

5 stars. *****