itwonlast:

Regarded as one of the finest mountain photographer ever, Vittorio Sella travelled the world to immortalize on film peaks and mounts that for the most part hadn’t been previously recorded. The aesthetic quality of his photographs prompted Ansel Adams to comment “the vastness of the subjects and the purity of Sella’s interpretations move the spectator to a definitely religious awe. 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.”

While the photographs are a testament to Sella’s eye, they are also an indication of his dedication and climber skills: perfection came at a price that Sella was willing to pay by lugging around his fragile forty pounds Dallmeyer camera, two pounds glass plates — for which he had to invent carrying equipment, including modified pack saddles and rucksacks — and a portable photo lab (he had jars full of collodium to coat the plates and buckets full of developing solution as well as a tent to serve as his travelling darkroom).