Image: Frank Hurley and Maslyn Williams looking out over the Kidron Valley, c. 1943, (Supplied - National Library of Australia)

If you think of the Antarctica explorers Mawson and Shackleton the chances are the images that come to mind were created by Frank Hurley. The photos of the frozen landscape captured in stark black and white still amaze and resonate today. But he didn’t just take images of the Antarctic – he was Australia’s official photographer in both World War One and Two.

The largest collection of Hurley’s work resides in the National Library and in a new exhibition Pilgrimage: Hurley in the Middle East curators have tried to do something different by focussing on his lesser known work.