Piste Possibly 1934

Here's Piste, a photograph by familie Wachenheimer, of what appears to be a ski resort. I like the way they've used the black and white tone to flatten the space, emphasizing the contrast between light and shadow. I bet the artist was thinking about ways of capturing the crispness of the mountain air, the way the light bounces off the snow. There's a sort of quietness to the scene, a stillness that invites you to imagine yourself there. The jagged edges of the photograph within the frame are almost like brushstrokes! I can imagine they spent time considering the surface quality, experimenting with different ways to evoke a particular mood, playing with the textures and tones available to them. It's like they are in conversation with all the other photographers and landscape artists who have tried to capture the feeling of being in nature. Ultimately, photography, like painting, embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations.