Vittorio Sella was a pioneering Italian photographer whose work at the turn of the 20th century shaped mountain and mountaineering history.
His rare images of the Himalayas remain some of the most famous ever trapped.
The new current show in the Indian capital Delhi, called Vittorio Sella: The Photographer on the Himalayas revives the breath of the amazing size of the Himalayas through his lens.
Curred by a well -known British researcher and author Hugh Thomson, organized by Delhi Art Gallery (Dag), the show is probably one of the biggest collections of Indian views of Sella.
It contains some of the earliest photos at the high height of Kanchenjung, the third largest mountain world, and K2, the second most advanced mountains of the world, trapped more than a century ago.
Born in Biella, a city known for his wool trade in northern Italy, Sella (1859–1930) he made his first climbs in nearby Alps.
“Throughout his career, Sella has used his skills in engineering and chemistry taught him by woolen mills and his father,” Thomson says.
Until his twenties, he had mastered complex photographic techniques such as Kolodia, allowing him to develop a large format glass panels in severe conditions.
His panoramic images, made with technical perfection, have earned around the world.
Sella -ov Himalayan trip began in 1899 when he joined the British researcher Douglas Freshfield on an expedition circulating a canhenjung.
Each tour of the mountains also included a fall in Nepal, which was also a closed kingdom.
While the climbing ambitions of the team disturbed the ruthless rain, Sella took the opportunity to record the untouched tops of the snow. He experimented with technology unattainable, trying out the telephone image of the canhenjunga. His paintings transported viewers into the world intact over time.
A decade later, Sella reached new heights – both literally and artistically – in the expedition in 1909 in K2 with Duke Abruzzi.
His photographs of the world’s hardest mountain as a testimony to his skill and resistance. Wearing a camera system weighing almost 30 pounds, Sella crossed the treacherous landscapes, creating images that defined the mountain.
Jim Curran, Author K2: The story of Mount Savage, Sella calls “Maybe the biggest mountain photographer … his name [is] Synonymous with technical perfection and aesthetic training. “
Sella was known for her extraordinary toughness, crossing the Alps at extraordinary speed despite wearing heavy photographic equipment.
His makeshift cameras and boots – three times harder than modern – are preserved at the Photographic Institute in Bielli.
His clothes weighing over 10 pounds, while his camera equipment, including Dallmeyer’s camera, a tripod and plates, added another 30 kg – more than today’s luggage limits in the aircraft baggage.
In the K2 expedition, Sella took about 250 formal photos with his Ross & Co camera for four to five months; On Kanchenjunga, about 200, it records Thomson.
“By modern digital standards, this number is nothing extraordinary – even in the last days of analog film, he would equate to some eight rolls, which a 1970 photographer could use in one morning on one mountain – but when Sella was photographing , this was a significant number.
“That meant huge care and thought was given to every photo, as he had a relatively few panels he could shoot.”
Years later, the famous mountaineering photographer Ansel Adams would have written that “Sella’s purity interpretations move the viewers to religious awe.”
Photos of high heights were created with risks – many of the most ambitious Sella shots were ruined when wet conditions caused the tissue dividers to keep the negatives.
Yet those who survived reveal a masterful view, Thomson notes.
“Sella was one of the first to recognize that paths in the snow were as part of the composition as the mountaineers who made them.”
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