In a graceful melding of art, history, and adventure, the Victoria Memorial Hall, in collaboration with Delhi Art Gallery (DAG), hosted a select preview of “Vittorio Sella: Photographer in the Himalaya” on 8th August. The event, scheduled from 4:30 pm to 6 pm, drew art lovers, mountaineering aficionados, and historians alike. As the exhibition’s special guest, Giles Tillotson, Senior Vice President at DAG, inaugurated the evening with an insightful introduction to the display’s significance.
This exhibition, launching in India for the first time, brings to light a rare collection of 78 original Sella prints, many stretching over 10 feet in meticulously stitched panoramas showcasing the majestic grandeur of Kangchenjunga (1899) and the Karakoram region (1909).
Why Vittorio Sella’s Work Still Resonates:
As a pioneer of mountain photography, operating at the cusp of the twentieth century, Vittorio Sella (28th August, 1859 - 12th August, 1943), the Italian mountaineer shattered the norms of his era by transporting studio-grade large-format photography equipment into the unforgiving high altitudes of the Himalayas. His efforts transcended mere documentation, elevating mountain photography into an art form, celebrated for its technical brilliance and composing finesse.
Mastery Meets Endurance:
Using 30×40 cm glass plates and inventing specialized pack saddles and rucksacks to manage these fragile, weighty materials, Sella captured images of glaciers, ridges, and peaks with unrivaled clarity. He executed this while enduring the harsh physicality of high-mountain environments.
Artist and Explorer in Tandem:
Sella’s body of work is not only artistically stunning—evoking what Ansel Adams described as a “religious awe”—but also of immense documentary importance. His photographs include some of the earliest visual records of glaciers, used today to understand long-term environmental changes.
Global Reach and Scientific Legacy:
A prolific mountaineer, Sella participated in expeditions across several continents—Alps, Caucasus, Alaska, Ruwenzori, Sikkim, and Karakoram—often alongside luminaries like Douglas Freshfield and the Duke of the Abruzzi. Besides capturing some of these remote regions' first visual depictions, Sella contributed to photogrammetry-based mapping efforts of those ranges.
Recognized as likely the most extensive showing of Sella’s Himalayan work outside the Vittorio Sella Foundation, this exhibition continues DAG’s ongoing exploration of early photography—this time shifting from India’s built heritage to its natural grandeur. Curator Hugh Thomson aptly summarizes Sella’s dual achievement: he was both a technical visionary and a courageous climber who forever changed our perception of mountain photography.
