EXPLORATION & DISCOVERY

2025

Competitive advantage begins early, with careful preparation and inquiry, when the return on investment in exploration and discovery is the privileged insight needed to operate with confidence.

Those words, gracing our website’s landing page, bring to mind a quintessentially British experience of the world. The images we’ve selected for our 2025 awareness campaign, Exploration and Discovery, offer a few selected snapshots of that history.

The photographs reflect our connections to the United Kingdom and to the United Arab Emirates. They feature weathered adventurers, priceless moments, and daunting landscapes and geographies. They include shades of the hidden, the unknown, and the inscrutable.

Most of all, they tell a story. Of a spirit of indomitable persistence. Of the determination to seek out unassailable truths under even the most extreme circumstances. Of a clearsighted understanding of things as they are, while knowing they might be something more.

Photo Credits

Our Exploration and Discovery 2025 campaign images are licensed through the Royal Geographical Society, the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Getty Images, Bridgeman Images, other photographic collections and agencies, online sources, and our personal collections.

Home Page

Main Image: Kellas Rock Peak, Tibet (China), 30 May 1935. Mount Everest Expedition 1935. Photographer: Unknown. © Royal Geographical Society via Getty Images.

What We Do

Tryptich: View of a member of Wilfred Thesiger's travelling party looking out across the Wadi Sayfam towards Jebel Kawr, Oman, March 30 – April 2, 1949. Photographer: Wilfred Thesiger. © Pitt Rivers Museum via Bridgeman Images.

Exploratory Research: Photo of Wilfred Thesiger in Oman c .1946. Licence: Alamy Stock Photo.
Contextual Research: Photo of Abdul Aziz Ibn Sa'ud, Sir Percy Cox and Gertrude Bell during Ibn Sa'uds visit to Basrah, Iraq, 1916. Source: Gertude Bell Archive, Newcastle University. https://gertrudebell.ncl.ac.uk/p/gb-3-1-23-1-54. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/.
Experimental Applications: Photo of Alexander Mitchell Kellas and unnamed sherpas, c. 1911-1914. Source: Ian R. Mitchell, “Aberdonian Alexander Kellas: The greatest Himalayan mountaineer of his day,” Press and Journal (5 June 2021) URL: https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/lifestyle/3183715/aberdonian-alexander-kellas-the-greatest-himalayan-mountaineer-of-his-day.
Advisory Support: Photo of H.M. King George VI, Gen. Bernard Montgomery, Montgomery ADC and Military Advisor Lt Col Christopher Dawnay. C. 1943-45. Photographer: Unknown. Licence: Alamy Stock Photo.
Fractional Support: Photo of the interior of Ernest Shackleton’s hut, Nimrod Expedition, 1907-1909. Licence: Wikimedia Commons. URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shackleton_nimrod_31.jpg
Technical Assistance: Photo of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay after first summit of Mt. Everest. 29 May 1953. Licence: Wikimedia Commons. URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edmund_Hillary_and_Tenzing_Norgay.jpg

Who We Serve

Tryptich: A small dhow being launched from a beach on an Abu Dhabi island, United Arab Emirates, March 14 – April 1, 1948 (b/w photo). Description: “This image was taken during Wilfred Thesiger's week and a half long sailing trip around the Abu Dhabi Islands with Sheikh Hazaa bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Sheikh Khalid bin Sultan Al Nahyan and their retainers.” Photographer: Wilfred Thesiger. © Pitt Rivers Museum via Bridgeman Images.

How We Do It

Tryptich: View of Salim bin Kabina, a member of Wilfred Thesiger's travelling party, walking below the crest of a large dune the Empty Quarter (Rub' al Khali), Saudi Arabia, January 12-18, 1948. DESCRIPTION: “Salim bin Kabina, a tribesman of the Bayt Imani lineage of Rashid Bedouin, is carrying handfuls of fodder for the party's camels. Photographed during the party's journey from Jaladah plain to Bani Ma‘arid sands.” Photographer: Wilfred Thesiger. © Pitt Rivers Museum via Bridgeman Images.

Miscellaneous