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Mint
3 days ago
- Mint
From K2 to Kangchenjunga: How Vittorio Sella's pioneering work changed mountain photography forever
For many years, I had looked at books, magazines, websites and blogs, searching for photographs taken by Italian Vittorio Sella. Over the course of time, these photographs became like familiar friends—and often, on seeing a mountain image on Google, I knew it was a Sella. But nothing prepared me for the enormity of the moment when I visited the exhibition, titled Vittorio Sella: Photographer in the Himalaya, which opened at Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata on 8 August. Delhi Art Gallery (DAG), in collaboration with Victoria Memorial, is showing for the first time in India a collection of 78 Sella prints from his expeditions around Kangchenjunga in 1899 and the Karakoram in 1909. To see the original Sella prints—some of the panoramas are over 10ft in length and meticulously stitched together—is truly a revelation. The stupendous details in the ridges, icefalls, glaciers and scree slopes in the images shot well over a hundred years ago is mindboggling to say the least. A pioneering mountain photographer of his generation, Sella set a benchmark in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In an era when photography was mainly confined to the realms of a studio in controlled conditions and the emphasis remained on documentation, Sella took the large-format studio equipment to the lofty heights of the Himalaya and the Karakoram, creating images that went far beyond mere documentation and are valued today for their aesthetic beauty and composition. Sella was born in the small town of Biella at the foot of the Italian Alps in 1859. The family was wealthy and his father owned a textile mill. He worked for some time in the family business before his passion for mountains and photography got the better of him. He was inspired by his uncle Quintino, who was a keen mountaineer and the founder of the Italian Alpine Club. Sella started climbing in the Alps. The story goes that one night in 1879, while attending an opera in Biella, Sella noticed a clear night sky. Dressed in his formal clothes, he rushed up the mountain to his small tent where a camera was mounted for such eventualities and took a brilliant panorama of Mont Mars. Sella started out by using the large plate 30x40cm Dallmeyer camera that he carried with him to the field. The camera itself weighed around 40 pounds and each glass negative around 2 pounds. Along with this there was a heavy tripod to support the equipment. Sella carried much of this equipment himself as he climbed up steep mountain heights. Later as technology evolved, he switched to the smaller Ross and Co. cameras around 1893 and finally towards the end of his career, he also used one of the first hand-held Kodak cameras. When Sella started out, it was the era of the wet collodion photo process—where the glass negatives had to be coated and developed on site, a daunting task. Later around 1880, the dry gelatine plate was introduced. It allowed photographers to leave their mobile darkrooms and work with higher exposure speeds and better sensitivity and process the plates back home. Many of Sella's later prints were the conventional silver gelatine ones. Sella was possibly one of the first photographers to include human figures in his mountain landscapes to provide a sense of scale, a technique which many modern photographers also follow today. Sella climbed extensively in the Alps from 1880-93. Some of his notable climbs were the first winter ascent of the Matterhorn in 1882, the first winter ascent of Mont Rosa in 1884, and the first winter traverse of Mount Blanc in 1888. He also looked further afield and made three expeditions to the Russian Caucasus in 1889, 1890 and 1896. On the first expedition, Sella and his team made an ascent of Mount Elbrus (5,642m), the highest peak in Europe. Sella photographed mountains in four continents—the Alps in Europe, Mount St Elias in North America in 1897, Ruwenzori in Africa in 1906, Kangchenjunga in Sikkim and Nepal in 1899 and K2 and the Karakoram in 1909, in Asia. It is pertinent to point out Sella's relationship with two towering personalities: the British lawyer and explorer Douglas Freshfield, who was president of the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club, and the Italian nobleman, Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi, who became Sella's patron. Knowing Sella's reputation as a mountain photographer, Freshfield invited Sella and his brother Erminio on a landmark expedition around Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world, in 1899. In a letter to Sella, Freshfield wrote, 'Could I hope to get you to bring your equipment and experience…but I should like to see those great peaks and go around Kangchenjunga…I have thought so for 20 years…perhaps it has got too late!" The Kangchenjunga expedition encountered bad weather and extreme snowfall on many days. Sella was undaunted. He put his heavy tripod and 40-pound plate camera in the 3ft of snow on the Zemu glacier in North Sikkim and shot what was eventually recognised as one the finest photographs of Siniolchu (6,888m). Freshfield later described Siniolchu as 'the most superb triumph of mountain architecture and the most beautiful snow mountain in the world". The DAG exhibition has two prints of Siniolchu besides images of Kangchenjunga and other satellite peaks of the range. The expedition completed the circuit of the mountain crossing the high Jongsong La, around 6,045m, from Sikkim into Nepal in extremely difficult and snowy conditions. Sella's three major expeditions were with the Duke of the Abruzzi, who had a passion for mountains and the desire to climb the highest peaks in the world. The duke also wanted to document his expeditions and with this in mind, he invited Sella to accompany him to Alaska, Ruwenzori and finally to the Karakoram. In 1897, the duke along with Sella and his team summitted Mount Saint Elias in Alaska. In 1906, the duke asked Sella to accompany him to the Ruwenzori mountains in Uganda known as Mountains of the Moon. On the Uganda expedition along with the ascent of Mt Stanley, the fourth highest peak in Africa, Sella photographed the exotic vegetation, rainforests as well as the indigenous people of the region. Sella's last major expedition was to the Karakoram in 1909, at age 50, where he produced some of his finest work, including K2, Broad Peak, the Gasherbrums, Muztagh Tower and Chogolisa, all of which can be seen at the exhibition. There are some magnificent panoramas of the range from the Baltoro glacier. The climb of Chogolisa set a new altitude record of 7,498m, which remained unbroken until the British expedition to the Everest in 1922. Unfortunately, the duke was forced to turn around just 150m below the summit due to bad weather. Interestingly, Chogolisa remained unclimbed for 66 years until an Austrian expedition summitted the peak in 1975. Sella's photograph of the duke and his guides climbing the Chogolisa icefall with enormous seracs about to topple over their heads remains one of the classics of mountain photography. Sella returned to Biella in 1909 after the expedition and focused his energies on selling his prints and photographs. A large collection of his work was bought by the National Geographic Society in 1912. He was also made an honorary member of the American Alpine Club in 1938. Sella continued to climb in the Italian Alps, the Grand Paradiso ranges and in 1935, at the age of 76, he made one last attempt to climb the Matterhorn but was unsuccessful. Sella died in Biella in 1943 at the age of 84. In his memory, the Italian Alpine Club set up Rifugio Vittorio Sella, an alpine hut, in the Grand Paradiso National Park. One of the peaks in the Ruwenzori range of Africa on Mount Luigi di Savoia was also named Sella peak in his honour. In November 2019, I trekked to the Pangpema base camp of Kangchenjunga at 5,130m in Nepal, where Sella had climbed up to a grassy shelf and shot his magnificent panorama of Kangchenjunga and the glacier. In Sella's footsteps, I struggled up a steep slope trying to reach the viewpoint. The Nepal earthquake of 2015 had reduced the hillside to a jumble of rock and scree and the going was hard. As I looked out over the glacier and the base camp below to the lofty heights of Kangchenjunga on that clear autumn morning, what was most startling was the absence of snow on the glacier. In around 120 years, the snow covered glacier below Kangchenjunga had been reduced to a wasteland of rock and rubble. In these turbulent times of extreme weather patterns, glacial lake outbursts and climate change, Sella's photographs stand as testimony as to what the great glaciers and mountains of the Himalaya and Karakoram looked like many years ago. The legendary American landscape photographer Ansel Adams was a great admirer of Sella's work. In an article in the Sierra Club Bulletin in 1946, Adams says, '…we are amazed by the mood of calmness and perfection pervading all of Sella's photographs. In Sella's photographs there is no faked grandeur; rather there is understatement, caution, and truthful purpose…Sella has brought to us not only the facts and forms of far-off splendours of the world, but the essence of experience which finds a spiritual response in the inner recesses of our mind and heart." At Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata till 7 September, 10am-6pm. Closed on Mondays and public holidays. Sujoy Das is a Kolkata-based trekker, mountain photographer and co-author of Everest, Reflections on the Solukhumbu.
Hindustan Times
29-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
No headway in case against journo Rana Ayyub in absence of X's response: Police
The Delhi Police have told a local court that it was yet to hear from social media company X about the details of journalist Rana Ayyub's account as part of its probe into a case of alleged insult to Hindu deities. In a report, the cyber police station (South Delhi) informed chief judicial magistrate Himanshu Raman Singh on Wednesday that the investigation will be finalised after X responds. It added that at least four notices were sent to X for the details. '...the alleged [insulting] tweets [of Ayyub] are not available on the platform [X],' the report said. On January 25, the Saket court directed the Delhi Police to book Ayyub under Indian Penal Code sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious beliefs by insulting religion), and 505 (statements that could incite public mischief) for allegedly using offensive and derogatory comments against Hindu deities. The sections provide for up to three years in prison. The court had asked the police to file an action taken report on the investigation. Advocate Amita Sachdeva, the complainant in the case, said Ayyub's posts caused her distress and prompted her to file a complaint. She is also a complainant in the case against the Delhi Art Gallery for allegedly displaying obscene paintings of the late artist MF Hussain. The case is pending in Delhi's Patiala House court.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
India's colonial past revealed through 200 masterful paintings
Founded in 1600 as a trading enterprise, the English East India company gradually transformed into a colonial power. By the late 18th Century, as it tightened its grip on India, company officials began commissioning Indian artists - many formerly employed by the Mughals - to create striking visual records of the land they were now ruling. A Treasury of Life: Indian Company Paintings, c. 1790 to 1835, an ongoing show in the Indian capital put together by Delhi Art Gallery (DAG), features over 200 works that once lay on the margins of mainstream art history. It is India's largest exhibition of company paintings, highlighting their rich diversity and the skill of Indian artists. Painted by largely unnamed artists, these paintings covered a wide range of subjects, but mainly fall into three categories: natural history, like botanical studies; architecture, including monuments and scenic views of towns and landscapes; and Indian manners and customs. "The focus on these three subject areas reflects European engagements with their Indian environment in an attempt to come to terms with all that was unfamiliar to Western eyes," says Giles Tillotson of DAG, who curated the show. "Europeans living in India were delighted to encounter flora and fauna that were new to them, and ancient buildings in exotic styles. They met – or at least observed – multitudes of people whose dress and habits were strange but – as they began to discern – were linked to stream of religious belief and social practice." Beyond natural history, India's architectural heritage captivated European visitors. Before photography, paintings were the best way to document travels, and iconic Mughal monuments became prime subjects. Patrons soon turned to skilled local artists. Beyond the Taj Mahal, popular subjects included Agra Fort, Jama Masjid, Buland Darwaza, Sheikh Salim Chishti's tomb at Fatehpur Sikri (above), and Delhi's Qutub Minar and Humayun's Tomb. The once-obscure and long-anonymous Indian artist Sita Ram, who painted the tomb, was one of them. From June 1814 to early October 1815, Sita Ram travelled extensively with Francis Rawdon, also known as the Marquess of Hastings, who had been appointed as the governor general in India in 1813 and held the position for a decade. (He is not to be confused with Warren Hastings, who served as India's first governor general much earlier.) The largest group in this collection is a set of botanical watercolours, likely from Murshidabad or Maidapur (in present-day West Bengal). While Murshidabad was the Nawab of Bengal's capital, the East India Company operated there. In the late 18th century, nearby Maidapur briefly served as a British base before Calcutta's (now Kolkata) rise eclipsed it. Originally part of the Louisa Parlby Album - named after the British woman who compiled it while her husband, Colonel James Parlby, served in Bengal - the works likely date to the late 18th Century, before Louisa's return to Britain in 1801. "The plants represented in the paintings are likely quite illustrative of what could be found growing in both the well-appointed gardens as well as the more marginal spaces of common greens, waysides and fields in the Murshidabad area during the late eighteenth century," writes Nicolas Roth of Harvard University. "These are familiar plants, domestic and domesticated, which helped constitute local life worlds and systems of meaning, even as European patrons may have seen them mainly as exotica to be collected." Another painting from the collection is of a temple procession showing a Shiva statue on an ornate platform carried by men, flanked by Brahmins and trumpeters. At the front, dancers with sticks perform under a temporary gateway, while holy water is poured on them from above. Labeled Ouricaty Tirounal, it depicts a ritual from Thirunallar temple in Karaikal in southern India, capturing a rare moment from a 200-year-old tradition. By the late 18th Century, company paintings had become true collaborations between European patrons and Indian artists. Art historian Mildred Archer called them a "fascinating record of Indian social life," blending the fine detail of Mughal miniatures with European realism and perspective. Regional styles added richness - Tanjore artists, for example, depicted people of various castes, shown with tools of their trade. These albums captured a range of professions - nautch girls, judges, sepoys, toddy tappers, and snake charmers. "They catered to British curiosity while satisfying European audience's fascination with the 'exoticism' of Indian life," says Kanupriya Sharma of DAG. Most studies of company painting focus on British patronage, but in south India, the French were commissioning Indian artists as early as 1727. A striking example is a set of 48 paintings from Pondicherry - uniform in size and style - showing the kind of work French collectors sought by 1800. One painting (above) shows 10 men in hats and loincloths rowing through surf. A French caption calls them nageurs (swimmers) and the boat a chilingue. Among the standout images are two vivid scenes by an artist known as B, depicting boatmen navigating the rough Coromandel coast in stitched-plank rowboats. With no safe harbours near Madras or Pondicherry, these skilled oarsmen were vital to European trade, ferrying goods and people through dangerous surf between anchored ships and the shore. Company paintings often featured natural history studies, portraying birds, animals, and plants - especially from private menageries. As seen in the DAG show, these subjects are typically shown life-size against plain white backgrounds, with minimal surroundings - just the occasional patch of grass. The focus remains firmly on the species itself. Ashish Anand, CEO of DAG says the the latest show proposes company paintings as the "starting point of Indian modernism". Anand says this "was the moment when Indian artists who had trained in courtly ateliers first moved outside the court (and the temple) to work for new patrons". "The agendas of those patrons were not tied up with courtly or religious concerns; they were founded on scientific enquiry and observation," he says. "Never mind that the patrons were foreigners. What should strike us now is how Indian artists responded to their demands, creating entirely new templates of Indian art."
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Yahoo
Frozen in time: Rare early images of the Himalayas from Italian pioneer
Vittorio Sella was a pioneering Italian photographer whose work at the turn of the 20th Century shaped both mountain photography and mountaineering history. His rare images of the Himalayas remain some of the most iconic ever captured. A new ongoing show in the Indian capital, Delhi, called Vittorio Sella: Photographer in the Himalaya brings to life the breathtaking grandeur of the Himalayas through his lens. Curated by renowned British explorer and author Hugh Thomson and organised by Delhi Art Gallery (DAG), the show is likely one of the largest collection of Sella's Indian views. It features some of the earliest high-altitude photographs of Kanchenjunga, the world's third-highest mountain, and K2, the world's second-tallest mountain, captured over a century ago. Born in Biella, a town known for its wool trade in northern Italy, Sella (1859–1930) made his first ascents in the nearby Alps. "Throughout his career Sella made use of his skills in engineering and chemistry that the wool mills and his father had taught him," says Thomson. By his twenties, he had mastered complex photographic techniques like the collodion process, enabling him to develop large-format glass plates under harsh conditions. His panoramic images, crafted with technical perfection, earned worldwide acclaim. Sella's Himalayan journey began in 1899 when he joined British explorer Douglas Freshfield on an expedition circumnavigating Kanchenjunga. Any circumnavigation of the mountain also involved an incursion into Nepal, which was also a closed kingdom. While the team's climbing ambitions were thwarted by relentless rain, Sella seized the opportunity to capture pristine snow-dusted peaks. He experimented restlessly with technology, trying out telephoto pictures of Kanchenjunga. His images transported viewers to a world untouched by time. A decade later, Sella reached new heights - both literally and artistically - on a 1909 expedition to K2 with the Duke of the Abruzzi. His photographs of the world's most difficult mountain stand as a testament to his skill and resilience. Carrying a camera system weighing nearly 30kg, Sella crisscrossed treacherous landscapes, creating images that defined mountain photography. Jim Curran, author of K2: The Story of the Savage Mountain, calls Sella "possibly the greatest mountain photographer... his name [is] synonymous with technical perfection and aesthetic refinement". Sella was known for his extraordinary toughness, traversing the Alps at remarkable speed despite carrying heavy photographic gear. His makeshift camera harness and boots - three times heavier than modern ones - are preserved at the Photographic Institute in Biella. His clothing alone weighed over 10kg, while his camera equipment, including a Dallmeyer camera, tripod, and plates, added another 30kg - more than today's airline baggage limits. On the K2 expedition, Sella captured around 250 formal photographs with his Ross & Co camera over four to five months; on Kanchenjunga, about 200, notes Thomson. "By modern digital standards, this number is nothing extraordinary - and even in the last days of analogue film, it would equate to some eight rolls, what a 1970s photographer could have used in a single morning on a single mountain - but when Sella was photographing, this was a considerable number. "This meant enormous care and thought was given to each photograph, both because he had relatively few plates he could shoot." Years later, the famous mountaineer-photographer Ansel Adams would write that the "purity of Sella's interpretations move the spectator to a religious awe". High-altitude photography came with risks - many of Sella's most ambitious shots were ruined when humid conditions caused tissue dividers to stick to the negatives. Yet those that survived reveal a masterful eye, notes Thomson. "Sella was one of the first to recognise how tracks in the snow are as much part of the composition as the mountaineers who made them." Follow BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
BBC News
09-02-2025
- BBC News
In pictures: An Italian photographer's earliest images of the majestic Himalayas
Vittorio Sella was a pioneering Italian photographer whose work at the turn of the 20th Century shaped both mountain photography and mountaineering history. His rare images of the Himalayas remain some of the most iconic ever captured.A new ongoing show in the Indian capital, Delhi, called Vittorio Sella: Photographer in the Himalaya brings to life the breathtaking grandeur of the Himalayas through his by renowned British explorer and author Hugh Thomson and organised by Delhi Art Gallery (DAG), the show is likely one of the largest collection of Sella's Indian views. It features some of the earliest high-altitude photographs of Kanchenjunga, the world's third-highest mountain, and K2, the world's second-tallest mountain, captured over a century ago. Born in Biella, a town known for its wool trade in northern Italy, Sella (1859–1930) made his first ascents in the nearby Alps. "Throughout his career Sella made use of his skills in engineering and chemistry that the wool mills and his father had taught him," says his twenties, he had mastered complex photographic techniques like the collodion process, enabling him to develop large-format glass plates under harsh conditions. His panoramic images, crafted with technical perfection, earned worldwide acclaim. Sella's Himalayan journey began in 1899 when he joined British explorer Douglas Freshfield on an expedition circumnavigating circumnavigation of the mountain also involved an incursion into Nepal, which was also a closed the team's climbing ambitions were thwarted by relentless rain, Sella seized the opportunity to capture pristine snow-dusted peaks. He experimented restlessly with technology, trying out telephoto pictures of Kanchenjunga. His images transported viewers to a world untouched by time. A decade later, Sella reached new heights - both literally and artistically - on a 1909 expedition to K2 with the Duke of the Abruzzi. His photographs of the world's most difficult mountain stand as a testament to his skill and resilience. Carrying a camera system weighing nearly 30kg, Sella crisscrossed treacherous landscapes, creating images that defined mountain Curran, author of K2: The Story of the Savage Mountain, calls Sella "possibly the greatest mountain photographer... his name [is] synonymous with technical perfection and aesthetic refinement". Sella was known for his extraordinary toughness, traversing the Alps at remarkable speed despite carrying heavy photographic gear. His makeshift camera harness and boots - three times heavier than modern ones - are preserved at the Photographic Institute in Biella. His clothing alone weighed over 10kg, while his camera equipment, including a Dallmeyer camera, tripod, and plates, added another 30kg - more than today's airline baggage limits. On the K2 expedition, Sella captured around 250 formal photographs with his Ross & Co camera over four to five months; on Kanchenjunga, about 200, notes Thomson."By modern digital standards, this number is nothing extraordinary - and even in the last days of analogue film, it would equate to some eight rolls, what a 1970s photographer could have used in a single morning on a single mountain - but when Sella was photographing, this was a considerable number. "This meant enormous care and thought was given to each photograph, both because he had relatively few plates he could shoot." Years later, the famous mountaineer-photographer Ansel Adams would write that the "purity of Sella's interpretations move the spectator to a religious awe".High-altitude photography came with risks - many of Sella's most ambitious shots were ruined when humid conditions caused tissue dividers to stick to the negatives. Yet those that survived reveal a masterful eye, notes Thomson. "Sella was one of the first to recognise how tracks in the snow are as much part of the composition as the mountaineers who made them." Follow BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
