English: Nina Demme on the 1931 expedition to Franz Josef Land. Photograph indicates these were the first photos sent from the expedition: left Demme taking water samples; Middle the camp; right Demme
ACME Newspictures distributed by Newspaper Enterprise Association
First publication appeared in Dunkirk, New York: Dunkirk Evening Observer, January 31, 1931. p 10 There is also this from the New York Daily News,(masthead shows the whole newspaper is copyrighted), but the image appears to have been cropped from the Dunkirk Evening Observer, which says first photos wired and distributed by Newspaper Enterprise Association (Uploaded the clearer image of the same grouping published in Canada.[1]) Delving further, these appear to have been taken by ACME Newspictures, which makes sense since NEA was their distributor. These appear to be separate shots that were cobbled together and distributed, as can be seen here and here Checking Periodicals copyright for 1931 I get no results for "Demme", "Arctic", "polar", "Riabtzova", "Petrovna", "Franz Joseph Land", "Acme", "NEA", or "Newspaper Enterprise Association". Checking Works of Art for 1931 for each of those, I get no result either. Based on the search of copyright.gov there were no renewals for anything having to do with Demme, nor for "Franz Joseph Land" as a title, name, or keyword. As the author is ACME Newspictures, I also searched for that as the "claimant" and get no results.
Note that it may still be copyrighted in jurisdictions that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works (depending on the date of the author's death), such as Canada (50 p.m.a.), Mainland China (50 p.m.a., not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany (70 p.m.a.), Mexico (100 p.m.a.), Switzerland (70 p.m.a.), and other countries with individual treaties.
Uploaded a work by ACME Newspictures distributed by Newspaper Enterprise Association from [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52162948/better-images/ Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: ''The Ottawa Citizen'' (2 February 1931) Page 12) with UploadWizard