The collections held by the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, are among the richest in the world for the study of polar environments. Work began in April 2007 on the Freeze Frame project to capture and preserve our archive of historical images in digital form.

Our photographic negatives are a unique resource but also an extremely fragile one. We have digitised over 20,000 photographic negatives from 1845-1960, representing some of the most important visual resources for research into British and international polar exploration.

Digitisation of related documents - information from personal journals and official reports from expeditions on which these photographs were taken - will provide historical and cultural context for the images. We also intend to add context to the images by displaying them alongside selected items from our pre-eminent collection of polar fine art, prints, drawings, and manuscript materials.

The International Polar Year 2007-08 is the first of its kind for fifty years. The timing of the IPY, coupled with growing interest in climate change, provides a unique opportunity for online resources at the Scott Polar Research Institute to reach a wider learning community than ever before. The forthcoming centenaries of the ‘Heroic Age’ expeditions to discover the Poles also demand of us that this visual archive is accessible to a global audience.

The Freeze Frame project is developing an online database of freely available visual and textual resources to support learning, teaching and research into topics relating to the history of Arctic and Antarctic exploration and science. Through a series of interpretative web pages and e-learning resources the project will provide access to hidden collections for all educational levels. We will encourage users to discover polar environments through the eyes of those explorers and scientists who dared to go into the last great wildernesses on earth.

Exhibition

Face to Face: Polar Portraits

The collections held by the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, are among the richest in the world for the study of polar environments. Developed from the research begun in 2007 on the Freeze Frame project, this touring exhibition features a selection of 50 portraits alongside some unique polar camera equipment from the museum of the Scott Polar Research Institute.

Capturing and preserving this archive of historical images in digital form, the project presents in digital form over 20,000 photographic negatives. It includes some of the very earliest imagery, through to the 1980s, representing some of the most important visual records of British and international polar exploration.

Focusing on portraiture, FACE TO FACE draws attention to some of this recovered historic imagery, whilst looking to the present and into the future. The project engaged the leading expedition photographer Martin Hartley to add to his marvellous portfolio by producing a range of new commissions, featuring men and women of many nations, exploring, working, and living in the polar regions today.

Dr Huw Lewis-Jones, Curator of Art at SPRI, has written a book to accompany the exhibition available for £40 (hb)/£25 (pb) plus p&p.

The exhibition is on show at Discovery Point in Dundee
7 Mar–24 May Mon–Sat 10.00am–5.00; Sun 11.00am–5.00, Free

Sir Ranulph Fiennes

Between 1979 and 1982, Sir Ranulph Fiennes led the Transglobe expedition, during which he and his partner Charles Burton became the first people to reach both North and South Poles overland. Sir Ranulph has deposited the archive of the Transglobe expedition with the Scott Polar Research Institute and the photographs form an integral part of the Freeze Frame collections. Here he explains his personal choice of favourite images from Transglobe and the other Freeze Frame collections.

“My first reaction on encountering this collection is - how to choose from the wealth of polar images presented by Freeze Frame? This is an extraordinary collection, filled with remarkable images. However, certain things stand out for me, as potent reminders of polar exploration. First, is the scale of these great wildernesses, represented here by the vastness of the Antarctic plateau (P52/13/023) and the grandeur of Ellesmere Island (P2007/16/0189) – both of these images give a sense of how insignificant humans can feel in these environments.

The Antarctic Plateau

Then there are the heroes: Scott and his men at the South Pole, the officers of the Terra Nova, Scott in his den, Gino Watkins on the British Arctic Air Route Expedition, Shackleton during his final voyage on board Quest. These are the men who had an impact on our boyhood imaginations. These pictures represent the exhilaration and the hardship, the quiet moments and the great achievements. Some of them record the precious moments of humour that spur you on.

The great polar artists are here, too. Herbert Ponting, the camera-artist, produced some of the most haunting images of the Antarctic and was able to capture both the immense landscape and the trivia and enforced intimacy of expedition life. A particular favourite is Edward Wilson producing the painting of the paraselena. My own photo of a parhelion is included in homage.

I am delighted that the photographs from our Transglobe Expedition (1979-82) form part of this collection. Reaching the North Pole, our ship Benjamin Bowring and Bothie the dog and the frozen jeans being just a few of the images that we can now share with the world. I congratulate the Scott Polar Research Institute for its vision in bringing Freeze Frame to the widest audience.”

• Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ photographic choices