Tony Decaneas, who founded the Panopticon Lab and Panopticon Gallery in Boston, was also the exclusive agent for the Bradford Washburn estate, and the North/South America agent for Vittorio Sella. I remember seeing Brad Washburn's work as part of shows at the Panopticon Gallery, and Brad himself at photography-related events around Boston during his later years.
https://decaneasarchive.com/about/
Yes, that's more the composition I'm familiar with in the Washburn shot, devoid of the piranha look.
I think both Sella's camera and the backpack frame which carried it are still preserved in his museum in Italy. A lot of the plates from the Mt St Elias expedition were lost due to the moisture and a spill accident. It's amazing that the Duke of Abruzzi had brass beds hauled by sled on that expedition so they could sleep good at night! I wonder if they had fresh pizza delivered by dogsled too. On all my own "expeditions", I'm the one who hauls everything needed by myself.
When I first saw Vittorio Sella's photographs, I heard 'he was the Duke of Abruzzi's photographer'...if you read the biography
https://www.mountaineers.org/books/b...explorers-life (it is very worthwhile). You'll see that the Duke lived an exceptional life... in a short 60 years.
Just to whet your appetite. His mother died when the Duke was 3, and he was sent to sea as a cabin boy at age 6. As a career sailer, he sailed the world's oceans. In 1889 he was mid-shipman on the Amerigo Vespucci. And in WW1 Commander -in-chief of the Italian navy.
Without Sella, only the most avid adventurers would know about the exploits of the Duke of Abruzzi. Without Abruzzi, the scope of Sella's work would not possibly have been so broad.
They were an ideal pair. Consider, that the Duke of Abruzzi's adventures that we read about all took place when he wasn't sailing on a wooden hulled schooner.
This summary of the Duke of Abruzzi's life "Prince of Climbers" is exhaustive if you don't read the biography
https://www.vqronline.org/essay/prince-climbers
Glad to see the biography included their exploration of the peaks of the Ruwenzori in central Africa. Chogolisa (Bride Peak) in Pakistan was where one of my nephew's climbing partners, John Climaco, was kidnapped about 25 years ago, ironically, by his own Govt liaison officer, not the Taliban. He published a book about the ordeal called Dangerous Liaisons. At the time, my nephew was over the crest to the north, exploring the Chinese side of K2 with Kurt Diemberger, the living legend who first climbed Broad Peak next to K2, and was the oldest person to ever climb K2 itself (and the sole survivor of that infamous episode).
The alternate name for Chogolisa, Bride Peak, is due to the almost complete white nature of the Peak, almost like in a wedding dress. Shirahata got some excellent Fujichrome shots of it with his Linhof. It's the shape of a gigantic tent, but dangerous enough to have taken the life of another climbing legend, Herman Buel. Diemberger was with him at the time, but then lost sight of him in the mist; and no one ever saw Buel again. Dangerous work. But factor in the conditions back when Sella was photographing the Baltoro Glacier, with a regiment of Gurkha soldiers out of India pursuing them at the same time, and it must have been quite an "interesting" trip.
That top of the world, or "Third Pole" is now under fierce territorial contention between India, Pakistan, and China, all hoping to control the glaciers which represent the source of some of the world's greatest rivers - more important than ever as these water resources are diminishing.
Most of the soldiers sent up there die from altitude sickness, not actual enemy activity. The Chinese have actually plowed a road to the foot of the glacier on their side, and built a small military base there - amazing, given the sheer remoteness, and the fact that the first time in history that valley was ever explored was less than three decades ago when Diemberger's expedition, including my nephew, was there.
Thanks for the link. #6364 from the Grand Canyon set is a wonderful landscape abstract!Originally Posted by Oren Grad
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