VITTORIO SELLA La Spedizione di S.A.R. al ponte di Chongo nella Valle Braldoh Karakorum1909 Expedition at the Chongo Bridge Braldoh Valley 11.125x15 in. 1909 Silver Gelatin Print on 12x15.6 in. paper ASG# VS/1012 label with printed label verso Vittorio Sella Biella embossment lower right corner in image.

On this Royal Expedition to the Himalayas in 1909 The Duke of the Abruzzi hired many hundreds of laborers to carry supplies to K2 in their successful climb to the highest altitude then recorded: 24,600 feet.

Vittorio Sella (Italian, 1859-1943) lived his entire life at the foot of the Alps in the Piedmont town of Biella, Italy where he became the greatest mountaineering photographer in the History of Photography. Influential figures in his life included his uncle, a leading figure in Italian unification who also founded the Italian Alpine Club for climbers in 1863, and his father, an industrialist and scientist who wrote the first Italian treatise on photography. Sella lived and worked during the Golden Age of European mountain exploration, when previously impervious summits were surmounted by enthusiastic expeditions. When Sella first began, it was necessary to use the wet-plate collodion process. Despite the weight of large-format cameras and the glass plates, the vagaries of weather conditions, and storage conditions that sometimes ruined the negatives, Sella was able to conquer treacherous terrain and make singular images as well as spectacular multi-negative panoramas with an unprecedented level of expertise. The grandeur of the natural settings he recorded was often amplified by the presence of expedition members posed within the landscape to give a sense of scale.

From 1879 to 1895, Sella continued to photograph various peaks of the Alps. He, along with his crew, made the first winter ascent of the Swiss Matterhorn in 1882. He returned that July with his camera and created his first panorama, a 360 degree view of the mountain composed of thirteen large plate negatives. Sella's photographs, particularly his panoramic shots that were carefully joined to present a contiguous expanse, were often used as maps of the virgin territories by later explorers.

Sella led three expeditions to the Caucasus range, from 1889-1896. In 1897, Sella gained a wealthy patron in the form of Luigi Amedeo di Savoia, Duke of Abruzzi. The Duke, an avid traveler and explorer, first took Sella to Alaska to climb Mount Saint Elias.

Sella next became the official photographer for the famed British explorer and writer Douglas Freshfield's 1898 expedition to the previously unmapped Himalayan region on the borders of Nepal and Sikkim Everest area.

In 1906, the Duke of Abruzzi would again invite Sella to join him on another adventure, this time to Ruwenzori, Uganda. The last major campaign that Sella participated in was to the Western Himalayas, including K2, the second highest mountain in the world. This would be his last expedition undertaken with the Duke of Abruzzi, in 1909. Part of the reason why the Duke favored Sella as a companion was to chronicle his increasingly bold explorations for generations to come. They were only the second team to attempt climbing K2, and while this would prove unsuccessful, the altitude reached on a different peak during that trip would be the highest recorded until 1922. Sella was the first to photograph this range, and his dazzling images of mountains, glaciers, tropical forests and more continue to inspire. Vittorio Sella passed away in 1943, having made his final attempt to climb the Matterhorn in 1935 at the age of seventy-six; an endeavor abandoned only because of an injury to one his guides.

Unlike the rudimentary documentation of much exploration and mountain photography, Sella's photographs were both technically advanced and masterfully composed, capturing crisp details and tonal ranges dramatically enhanced by the play of light and shadow. In a 1946 article for the Sierra Club Bulletin, famed landscape photographer Ansel Adams wrote with Sella's sensitive insight and response the magnificence of mountains is distilled into a high order of expression.

Very Good mild wear