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Subcribe to comment rss feedAndrew Turner chooses one of his favourite images
Andrew Turner
I am a Sussex-based landscape photographer in my spare time around my professional life as a Conservation Engineer. I have a passion for wild spaces. They bring a freedom to mind and thought away from the clutter of modern society.
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When I am preparing for a day or two in the mountains, I will often think of Vittorio Sella. Deciding what to pack in the rucksack is a crucial part of the preparation; what clothing to take for the expected weather, food, liquid, emergency provisions, protection of one form and another, navigation aides, crampons and ice axe if wintery, and then of course, photographic equipment.
Not many mountaineering guidebooks define a camera as ‘essential gear’, but I sense that for many photographers it forms part of the raison d’etre for climbing them. With all the other items packed away, the volume and weight of the photographic equipment become key factors; there is only so much room in the rucksack and I need to think of my back… And how much gear we take is often influenced by how technical and strenuous of the climbing is expected to be. Do we take one flexible lens or more? How many filters and spare batteries? Is the tripod a practical proposition or is it simply going to enjoy an outing strapped to the side of the bag because the wind is too gusty or the rain inclement?
And this is where Vittorio Sella comes to mind, and I doff my cap to what he was able to accomplish, both in terms of climbing and the photographic equipment he carried.
Vittorio Sella was born in 1859 in the foothills of the Italian Alps. His photographic work began in 1879, but -crucially and uniquely for his time - he was also an accomplished mountaineer. One of his earliest achievements was a first winter ascent of the Matterhorn. He later joined numerous overseas expeditions between 1889 and 1909 – including to the Caucasus, Alaska, Kangchenjunga in Sikkim and Nepal, Ruwenzori in Uganda, and most famously to K2 in the Karakorum. Throughout, Sella travelled with his camera – usually a bespoke hand-made plate camera by Dallmeyer, weighing 40 pounds and many glass plates (each weighing 2 pounds). One can quickly gain a sense of what this all weighed, and how many boxes were needed for carriage. Whilst Sella did have the help of porters, I still marvel at the effort, perseverance, and planning that went into his mountain photography, which is still recognised as some of the best mountain landscape photography produced.