VITTORIO SELLA. The Upper Baltoro taken from near Camp XI at the foot of the Golden Throne. Karakoram Mts. Himalayan Peaks in Cashmere, 1909, Sella number HK (6 prints). 19x123" gelatin silver print, printed c. 1909, mounted on 14x18" heavy gray board. Inscribed in white ink on mount recto: Himalayas / Broad Peak at Sunset Embossed with Vittorio Sella stamp in lower right of print. Inscribed in pencil on mount verso: Panel 1: The Upper Baltoro taken from near Camp XI at the foot of the Golden / Throne. Inscribed in black ink mount verso Panel 1: Karakoram Mts. / Himalayan peaks in Cashmere / Appalachian Club / Trim 1/2 all around. Inscribed in black ink mount verso Panel 6: Karakoram Mts. / Himalayan peaks in Cashmere.

The most damaged and most spectacular panorama in the AMC collection. 4 Panels are good. 2 panels 1 and 2 have lifting emulsion attached to the other panel. It can be conserved for much more money than the starting price here.

Vittorio Sella (1859-1943) was the leading large-format mountaineering photographer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, renowned for his spectacular high-altitude photographs of glacial floes, peaks, and valleys. Sella traveled the world, photographing in the European Alps, the Caucasus, Mt. Saint Elias (Alaska Yukon Border), and the Himalayan Sikkim. In the early 1900s he photographed mountains in Africa Ruwanzari and the Himalayan Karakoram.

Vittorio Sella lived during the Golden Age of European mountain exploration when many peaks were being scaled for the first time. Prior to his era, mountains were mostly regarded as dangerous obstacles to be crossed, haunted by evil spirits. The early nineteenth century saw a dramatic shift in people's perception of mountains, heralded by the Romantic poets who lauded them as "palaces of nature" that embodied the eternal. To Wordsworth and others of the Romantic era, alpine pinnacles became symbols of the heights to which the imagination of man could aspire, toward the unattainable goals of understanding infinity, eternity, and the vastness of God. It was no accident that the beginnings of mountaineering as a sport coincided with the recognition that mountains were, in fact, beautiful. And the development of photography coincided with that very moment in the history of natural philosophy which has been called the "era of moralized mountaineering." This ushered in a sudden interest in landscape and natural scenery, along with poetry, painting, photography, and the art of travel as people sought out the heightened emotions brought about by a full experience of Nature.

This sale of lots from this auction will directly benefit the Appalachian Mountain Club Trails Protection Fund; Conservation Research and Climate Action; and the Modernization and Preservation of the AMC Library and Archives.

Severe problems: First 2 panels have severe damage, emulsion is lifted from and stuck to the other. All panels have edge wear abrasions and moderate wear. 4 panels are in very good condition.