Freeze frame: how Herbert Ponting captured Antarctica

A century before the makers of Frozen Planet, the photographer Herbert Ponting travelled with Captain Scott to Antarctica. The British Antarctica Expedition, 1910-1913, was to become a tragedy when Scott and his party died after reaching the South Pole second to their rival Roald Amundsen. Yet before they set out for the centre of the frozen continent they explored, and photographed, its spectacular sights. Ponting took powerful, touching shots of penguins, seals and the expedition's dogs and horses. This picture – Grotto in an Iceberg – taken from an ice cave, is Ponting's most famous shot. Scott’s ship is in the distance; Ponting, deep in the ice grotto, sees its swirling serpentine contours and ovoid aperture. It is like the frozen eye of a frost giant spying on the explorers. That frozen giant would get them. This photograph is one of the most beautiful ever taken of Antarctica, but it is forever tinged by death. In festive terms, this is In the Bleak Midwinter Illustration: Herbert Ponting/The Royal Collection/HM Queen Elizabeth II