1. VITTORIO SELLA. Crevasses and Seracs, towards Tete Blanche, c. 1879-1892, Sella number AV 398(1). 11.2x14.9" collodion print, printed c. 1893, flush mounted on thin board, mounted on 17 1/4x13 5/8" grey board. Inscribed in ink on mount recto: Alps Crevasses and Seracs V 398.; inscribed in pencil: 170; inscribed in pencil on mount verso: V 398.

2. VITTORIO SELLA. Matterhorn, from Tiefenmatten Glacier, c. 1879-1892, Sella number AV 399. 14.8x11.3" collodion print, printed c. 1893, flush mounted on thin board, mounted on 13x16 5/8" grey board. Inscribed in ink on mount recto: Alps Matterhorn V399; inscribed in pencil on mount verso: 399.

The rhythm and form of glaciers spreading from and up mountain peaks, forming rivers and bowls around and up to the highest peaks were a compelling composition for Vittorio Sella. By the early 1890s the idea that photographs could be artistic was commonplace, though most artists, including the young Alfred Stieglitz, held that they should be "painterly", soft-focused pictures representing nostalgic, sentimental and romantic qualities. Running parallel to this "pictorial" sensibility were the sharp focused views made by exploration photographers like Sella who was striving to capture geological and geographical verisimilitude through powerfully composed crisp pictures. By 1910 photographers like Stieglitz and Paul Strand began to shift away from pictorial imagery in favor of more documentary, unsentimental, hard edged pictures with a "modernist" sensibility, very like the pictures that Sella had been producing all along. Artistically, Sella was ahead of his time since he had an eye for the abstract masses of mountains, as well as the details of escarpments and glaciers.

1. 398(1) Very Good: Minor wear, abrasions, edge and corner wear, and marks. Mount has mild edge and corner wear, dirt and marks.
2. 399 Good to Very Good: Mild wear, abrasions, dirt, edge wear and corner wear. Mount has light edge and corner wear, marks and dirt.