Book review: Sella, V. and Adams, A. (1999). Summit.

Sella, V. and Adams, A. (1999). Summit. New York: Aperture.

If I collected photobooks, I would buy this.

It features what are perhaps the earliest and certainly most sublime photographs of the upper reaches of our planet ever made.  The images are even more remarkable given they were produced between 1879 and 1909 with heavy camera equipment on glass plate negatives.  Imagine hauling that kind of gear into the Alps, the Himalaya, the Caucasus, Alaska, and the Rwenzori, all locations documented in this collection.

I have read quite a bit in photographic history, but I didn’t run into Sella until finding a reference in The Ghost of Freedom, an introductory history of the Caucasus (quite a good read, for those that might be interested in more about that corner of the world).  Looking at this collection of images, it's difficult to imagine why Sella has been so largely ignored.  Not only was he the first to document many of these environments, but he did so with great technical skill and aesthetic sensitivity.

Aletsch Glacier, 1884 (look for the human figure)

Unfortunately, the full story of Sella seems yet to be told.  This book includes texts from Ansel Adams; David Brower, first executive director of the Sierra Club; mountaineers Greg Child and Paul Kallmes; and curator Wendy Watson.  The last is the closest to providing an overview of Sella’s life and work.  Kallmes’ chapter introductions provide details of the challenges of particular environments, but there seems to be much more detail, from expedition journals, for example, that could be used to compose a rich biography.

In the meantime, I hope someone gets around to releasing a collection of Sella’s largely ignored ethnographic images, photos of the peoples and villages in the communities through which he hiked.

Ushba, 1890

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I have since discovered “The Return of Vittorio Sella,” an essay published as a forward to a 2008 exhibit catalog with reference to a 1948 biography by Ronald Clark, The Splendid Hills (currently out of print and no electronic copy to be found).  

A short bio can be read is available from the Andrew Smith Gallery.  

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