the photographs
Images
CARL R. EKLUND
ANTARTIC PHOTOGRAPHS 1939-1941
Lodged in an old cigar box, I recently found the negatives of my grandfather Carl R. Eklund’s personal photographs from the United States Antarctic Expedition led by Admiral Byrd, 1939-1941. He was an ornithologist and biologist on this expedition and it was from the East Base on Stonington Island that at the age of 31, he went exploring and mapping by dog sledge, with Finn Ronne, for 84 days. This sledging trip covered 1,264 miles and delineated over 50 miles of new coastline.
Intrigued by the portraits that my grandfather shot of his fellow explorers, I began enlarging and printing the images revealing an intimate and seemingly contemporary portrait series. More than 70 years after the expedition, I am discovering a grandfather I never knew and his compelling portrayal of a bygone age of Antarctic exploration.
I am working on a book and exhibition that will tell the visual history of life at the East Base during this 18 month expedition and the details of my grandfather’s Antartic Journey beyond the edges of the known.