1. VITTORIO SELLA. Seracs of the Lys Glacier, c. 1879-1892, Sella number AVII 475. 15.3x11.4" collodion print, printed c. 1893, mounted on 12.3x16.8" heavy brown board. Inscribed in ink on mount recto: 475. Seracs of Lys Glacier; Inscribed in pencil: A; Inscribed in blue pencil: VII Print recto embossed with artist's credit stamp in bottom right corner; Stamped in ink on mount verso: Depose / Tous Droits Reserves / V. Stella - Biella.

2. VITTORIO SELLA. Dent Blanche, Gabelhorn and Rothhorn from the Theodulhorn, c. 1879-1892, Sella number AVII 537. 15x11" collodion print, printed c. 1893, mounted on 17.3x13.5" heavy brown paper. Inscribed in ink on mount recto: Alps Dent Blanche, Gabelhorn and Rothhorn from the Theodulhorn; Inscribed in pencil on mount verso: A-VII/ #537 bis./ 156/313; Inscribed in red pencil: 537; Paper label with red border attached to mount verso inscribed in ink: gift of/ Miss Anna Chace; Print recto embossed with artist's credit stamp in bottom right corner.

"Sella's photography was accomplished using orthochromatic plates which are sensitive to all colors of light except those of the red regions of the spectrum. Skies were rendered light gray, and foliage medium gray; atmospheric space was well recorded, and as there was little red in the general subject matter, "panchromatic" materials would have offered slight advantage. Color filters were undoubtedly used to reduce the values of the sky and to bring snow and clouds into vigorous relief." ~Ansel Adams

By the early 1890s the idea that photographs could be artistic was commonplace, though most artists, including the young Alfred Stieglitz, held that they should be "painterly," soft-focused pictures representing nostalgic, sentimental and romantic qualities. Running parallel to this "pictorial" sensibility were the sharp focused views made by exploration photographers like Sella who was striving to capture geological and geographical verisimilitude through powerfully composed crisp pictures. By 1910 photographers like Stieglitz and Paul Strand began to shift away from pictorial imagery in favor of more documentary, unsentimental, hard edged pictures with a "modernist" sensibility, very like the pictures that Sella had been producing all along. Artistically, Sella was ahead of his time since he had an eye for the abstract masses of mountains, as well as the details of escarpments and glaciers.

1.475 Good: Moderate to heavy abrasions, visible left center, edge and corner wear. Mount has much wear, loss and held together with much tape and is fragile.

2. 537 Very Good: Minor wear, abrasions, edge and corner wear. Mount has edge and corner wear dirt and marks.