Alister Thomason from Yell, Shetland went first to South Georgia aged 16 in 1954. During his time working in South Georgia he spent two seasons over-wintering, where he picked up skiing for fun. During his time at the whaling Thomason was mostly based at Leith Harbour, where he worked at various jobs during his six seasons.
While he was a winch operator, he worked hard to make sure that others around him was safe. Hauling a huge whale on a winch had a lot of pressure on and if the wire had snapped it could have caused injury. Later Thomason moved on to the meat extract plant, where he worked in the steaming plant making condensed whale extract. This was a slow moving plant, where they had to try to extract as much from the whale as possible as it could be sold for high profits. Workers in the plant, like Thomason, could expect to get a lot of money for doing overtime here.
Thomason took some of his own images while working at the whaling. Serving as important documents for showing what life and work was like for whalers. Especially true of his images from the winches and within the laundry, of which there are few examples.
Following his time at the whaling Thomason returned back to the North of Yell, becoming a successful fisherman.