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Grolier Club Exhibitions

Vittorio Sella's Photography

Sella_Crevasses_1893.jpg

Vittorio Sella
Crevasses of Glacier Blanc, Grande Sagne, and Les Ecrines, August 12, 1888
Gelatin silver print, 1893

Sella_Ushba at Sunrise from Mazeri Village_1890.jpg

Vittorio Sella
Ushba at Sunrise from Mazeri Village, September 29, 1890
Gelatin silver print, 1892

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Vittorio Sella
Girls of Gebi, 1892
Collodion silver print

Vittorio Sella spent considerable time documenting the local tribal people during his visits to the Caucasus. Italian climbers who visited the region in the 1990s were surprised to find prints on display that Sella had given the locals one hundred years earlier. They also found that his name was still mentioned during special occasions and events—he had become part of their history.

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Vittorio Sella
The Village of Mestia in Northwest Georgia, in the Caucasus Mountains, 1896
Lightly hand-colored gelatin silver print

Sella_Hunters in the Region around Mestia.jpg

Vittorio Sella
Hunters in the Region around Mestia
Lightly hand-colored gelatin silver print

Sella_Summit of Mount Siniolchu_1899.jpg

Vittorio Sella
Summit of Mount Siniolchu as seen from the Zemi Glacier, Sikkim, 1899
Gelatin silver print, ca. 1900

Vittorio Sella inscribed the verso of this print, “La più bella montagna del mondo” (The most beautiful mountain in the world).

Sella_Summit of Mount Jannu_1899.jpg

Vittorio Sella
Summit of Mount Jannu at Sunset,
Nepal, 1899
Gelatin silver print

“Sella’s telephoto-lens masterpiece of the great head of Jannu, floating on the clouds, high above the world of little men—the very symbol of an ideal mountain-peak.” 

—Jean Franco and Lionel Terray, At Grips With Jannu, 1967

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Vittorio Sella
K2, Mount Godwin-Austen from the South, 1909
Gelatin silver print

Sella_Mount Baltoro Glacier Lake.jpg

Vittorio Sella
Mount Baltoro Glacier Lake, 1909
Gelatin silver print

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Vittorio Sella
K2 as Seen from the East, on the Rocks above Camp VI, 1909
Print
Signed by members of the 1954 Italian expedition that first summited K2