Cross-country skiers--Sports 1941 - 1945

This is a small gelatin silver print of a group of cross-country skiers in a landscape by Robert Frank. Look at the grayness and the way the figures recede. I think Frank was interested in light and how it affects the way we see things; he was a street photographer, so he was very aware of how the world looks when you're just walking around. I imagine him out in the snow, with the wind whipping around. The horizon disappears, and that line of skiers becomes almost abstract. The photo turns into something bigger. I love the way Frank frames the view, the closest figure is cropped on the right, so you feel like you are right there among them, struggling to keep up. Maybe that’s what Frank was doing, too, in his own way, as an artist – trying to find a new way to see. That search is something that links artists and connects us to the world.