The Hero’s Journey was commissioned by Sydney Grammar Prep School in 2012. Paul has had a long association with the school since 2005. The school has always sung Paul’s Shackleton and it was decided to finally write the perfect accompanying piece.
Frank Hurley, a husky, curly-haired Australian, ran away from home when he was 14 and went to work on the Sydney docks. He had an artistic side that appeared early in his rough life. At the age of 17 he bought his first camera, a 15-shilling Kodak Brownie. He quickly taught himself the technical aspects of photography and in 1910, at the age of 25, he saw a chance to link photography with adventure. Australian explorer Douglas Mawson was planning an expedition to Antarctica. Antarctica, a continent unknown, beckoned adventurous men of the time in a golden age of polar exploration.
Hurley raised expedition photography to a new level. He did not make routine photos of explorers posing in the snow. Instead, he often focused on the snow itself, or on grim snowscapes that became beautiful in his compositions. On Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance, and throughout the 22-month ordeal, Hurley was courageous and, in the words of a shipmate, “hard as nails.” Hurley, with the honorary rank of captain in the Australian Imperial Force, served as a frontline photographer in World War I. He took some of the War’s only known color photos. Later he traveled to Papua New Guinea and Tasmania, where he photographed more in a travelogue style. He produced several books about Australia.
This sample from the Hunter Singers 25th Anniversary Concert, directed by Kim Sutherland
