The first images of an Italian photographer of the majestic Himalaya

Vittorio Sella was a pioneering Italian photographer whose work at the beginning of the 20th century gave shape to both mountain photography and the history of mountaineering.

Its rare images of Himalaya are still some of the most emblematic ever captured.

A new ongoing show in the Indian capital, Delhi, called Vittorio Sella: photographer in the Himalayas gives life to the impressive greatness of the Himalayas through its lens.

Commissioned by the famous British explorer and author Hugh Thomson and organized by the Delhi Art Gallery (DAG), the show is probably one of the largest collections of the Indian views of Sella.

It has some of Kanchenjunga’s first photographs, the third highest mountain in the world, and K2, the second highest mountain in the world, captured more than a century ago.

Born in Biella, a city known for its wool trade in northern Italy, Sella (1859-1930) made its first promotions in the nearby Alps.

“Throughout his career, Sella made use of his engineering and chemistry skills that Lana Molinos and his father had taught him,” says Thomson.

In his veins, he had dominated complex photographic techniques such as the collodion process, which allowed him to develop large format glass plates in hard conditions.

His panoramic images, elaborated with technical perfection, won by world acclaim.

Sella’s Himalayas trip began in 1899 when he joined the British explorer Douglas Freshfield on a circumnavant expedition of Kanchenjunga.

Any circumnavigation of the mountain also implied an incursion in Nepal, which was also a closed kingdom.

While the climbing ambitions of the team were frustrated by a relentless rain, Sella took the opportunity to capture virgin snow peaks. He experienced restless with technology, testing Kanchenjunga teleobjectives. Their images transported the spectators to an intact world for time.

A decade later, Sella reached new heights, both literally and artistically, in an expedition of 1909 to K2 with the Duke of the Abruzzi.

His most difficult mountain photographs in the world are a testimony of his ability and resistance. Carrying a camera system that weighs almost 30 kg, Sella intersected in betrayal landscapes, creating images that defined mountain photography.

Jim Curran, author of K2: The Story of the Savage Mountain, calls Sella “possibly the best mountain photographer … His name (s) synonymous with technical perfection and aesthetic refinement.”

Sella was known for his extraordinary hardness, crossing the Alps at a remarkable speed despite carrying heavy photographic equipment.

Its harness and improvised chamber boots, three times heavier than modern ones, are preserved in the photographic institute of Biella.

His clothes only weighed more than 10 kg, while his camera team, including a Dallmeyer, tripod and dishes, added another 30 kg, more than the luggage limits of the current airline.

In the expedition of K2, Sella captured around 250 formal photographs with his Ross & co camera for four or five months; In Kanchenjunga, around 200, Thomson notes.

“According to modern digital standards, this number is not extraordinary, and even in the last days of the analog movie, it would be equivalent to about eight rolls, which a photographer of the 70s could have used in a single morning in a single mountain , but when chair was it was photographing, this was a considerable number.

“This meant enormous care and was thought of each photograph, both because it had relatively few plates that could shoot.”

Years later, the famous mountain photographer Ansel Adams would write that “the purity of Sella’s interpretations moves the viewer to a religious astonishment.”

Photography at great altitude comes with risks: many of Sella’s most ambitious shots were ruined when wet conditions caused tissue divisors to adhere to the negatives.

However, those who survived reveal a masterful eye, says Thomson.

“Sella was one of the first to recognize how snow tracks are both part of the composition and the mountaineers who made them.”

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