949
General of Canada, Edouard Deville (1849–1924), is
recognized as being the fi rst to use photogrammetry
(photographic surveying) on a large scale with dry-
plate cameras within the Rocky Mountains beginning in
- As a result of the success of his method, Canadian
members of the International Boundary Commission
of 1892 surveying the mountainous boundary between
Alaska and Canada quickly produced visual data from
mountaintops which their American counterparts were
unable to equal. As happened with the U.S. railroads,
the Canadian Pacifi c Railway encouraged commercial
photographers with free passes and sometimes even
a special railway car equipped with a darkroom. The
company also established its own photographic public-
ity department whose fi rst photographer was Alexander
Henderson. The CPR also imported Swiss mountain
guides to the Rocky Mountains. Mountaineering and
amateur photographer families such as the Vaux fam-
ily of Philadelphia sometimes hired these or Canadian
guides on their annual expeditions to the Canadian
Rockies.
Because recreational mountain climbing developed
within the European Alps, the fi rst mountaineering pho-
tographs were taken there shortly after the daguerreo-
type process was announced, but possibly not before
the American explorer Frémont’s abortive attempts in - A German photographer Friederich von Martens
who lived in Paris was appointed to take photographs
on a French government expedition to the Alps in 1844.
The British art critic John Ruskin claimed to have da-
guerreotyped the Matterhorn in 1849. Frederick Crawley
is credited with the 1854 daguerreotype “Mont-Blanc,
Chamonix” (Frizot, 1998, 55). In the early 1860s the
French Bisson Brothers produced spectacular mountain-
eering photographs on Mount Blanc. Some other signifi -
cant Alpine photographers who were also mountaineers
were William F. Donkin (Great Britain), Vittorio Sella
(Italy), and Joseph Tairraz (and descendants, France).
The French photographer and publisher Adolphe Braun
also produced beautiful Alpine photographs during the
1860s. The fi rst detailed photographic survey of the Alps
was started in 1859 by Aimé Civiale and published in
France in 1882 (Les Alpes au point de vue de la géog-
raphie physique et de la géologie).
Photographic documentation of recreational moun-
taineering was encouraged by the formation of climbing
clubs beginning in the mid-1850s. Photography was used
as an educational aid to assist aspiring mountain climb-
ers in understanding the hazards and physical rigours.
English Lake District mountaineers and photographer
brothers George and Ashley Abraham documented their
rock and mountain climbing activities beginning in the
1890s and encouraged others in this emerging sport. Due
to the cumbersome nature of early photographic equip-
ment, however, amateur photography by mountaineers
did not produce signifi cant numbers of photographs until
after the late 1880s and the introduction of the Kodak
roll fi lm camera system.
The Himalayas in Asia, being the highest mountains
in the world, attracted many European photographers.
None were as initially successful, however, as Samuel
Bourne, the fi rst photographer to attempt photography
at altitudes thought to be impossible to photograph in.
Based in India, he made three trips to document theMOUNTAIN PHOTOGRAPHY
Charnaux, Florentin.
Pyramide de Glace sous les
Grands Mulets.
The J. Paul Getty Museum,
Los Angeles © The J. Paul
Getty Museum.