1. VITTORIO SELLA. Gentians (natural size), Zemu Glacier., 1899, Sella number HS 49. 7.3x9.4" collodion print, printed 1901, mounted on 10x12" heavy brown board. Embossed with Vittorio Sella stamp in lower right of print. Inscribed in black ink on mount recto: Gentians (natural size), from side of Zemu Glacier. Inscribed in pencil mount verso: 49 / HS 49.

2. VITTORIO SELLA. Edelweiss, Zemu Glacier., 1899, Sella number HS 51. 76.6x9" collodion print, printed 1901, mounted on 10x12" heavy brown board. Embossed with Vittorio Sella stamp in lower right of print. Inscribed in black ink on mount recto: Leontopodium alpinum. (natural size) Inscribed in pencil mount verso: 51 / HS 51.

3. VITTORIO SELLA. Delphinium glaciale, Zemu Glacier., 1899, Sella number HS 52. 76.7x9" collodion print, printed 1901, mounted on 10x12" heavy brown board. Embossed with Vittorio Sella stamp in lower right of print. Inscribed in black ink on mount recto: Delphiuum glacialis. (natural size) Inscribed in pencil mount verso: 52 / HS 52

Like Ansel Adams Sella focused on the beautiful nature of plants they encountered in the jungles or as her at the edge of the Zemu Glacier.

Ansel Adams paid tribute to Sella's greatness in a 1946 article for the Sierra Club Bulletin when he wrote, "with Sella's sensitive insight and response the magnificence of mountains is distilled into a high order of expression."

During his lifetime Vittorio Sella was celebrated for the photographs he exhibited from his daring expeditions. According to one reviewer, his annual exhibition of mountain photographs at the Alpine Club in London was "inconveniently crowded." Sella sold his prints to people from Italy, France, Germany, and England, and was represented by a London dealer named Spooner. His photographs satisfied a growing public hunger to know more about distant places on the earth that few would ever see first-hand, while providing a satisfying blend of artistic, scientific, intellectual, and even spiritual elements. Sella's primary goal was to provide the empirical evidence of what he and his party had seen on their expeditions, and to convey reality as it was perceived by the human eye. His approach was governed by rigorous technical and aesthetic standards that he called "la realta severe" - severe reality.

1. HS 49 Very Good, minor wear and edge wear. Mount has edge and corner wear and marks and stains recto, tape residue verso.

2. HS 51 Excellent. Minor wear. Mount has corner and edge wear and small scrapes recto, tape marks mount verso.

3. HS 52 HS 51 Excellent. Minor wear. Mount has corner and edge wear and small scrapes recto, tape marks mount verso.