Climbing with Pieter Dirk van der Poel, Canton of Valais--40 Fotos 1944

Curator: This gelatin silver print by Robert Frank, dating from 1944, is titled "Climbing with Pieter Dirk van der Poel, Canton of Valais--40 Fotos." It's a striking composition. Editor: It evokes a sublime mood, doesn't it? That dramatic cloudscape and the strong contrast between light and shadow—it almost feels religious in its intensity. Curator: The pictorialist style certainly lends it that ethereal quality. Frank seems less interested in documenting the climb literally, and more in conveying the feeling of confronting nature’s immensity. Sunlight is represented as divine rays shining on the peaks. Editor: Considering the image was created during the war years, you wonder about its reception. I’m drawn to the title including “40 Fotos.” Was Frank attempting a series here, presenting viewers with repetitive forms of mountain ascensions during turbulent times? Curator: It does invite that consideration, doesn’t it? Mountain landscapes often function as symbols of endurance and resilience. Climbing is always about perseverance. Editor: These landscapes were created for a broad public viewership. Was this image serving to showcase strength? Mountain imagery has long carried that connotation in Switzerland. Curator: Definitely, the natural environment has always carried great symbolic power. Mountains operate in that dichotomy of sublime challenge, but also representing this place of safe-haven and stability. What's so intriguing is Frank’s blending of that sublime visual language. It doesn’t strike me as purely documentary, it’s laden with deeper resonance. Editor: I agree, the image does a wonderful job of revealing Frank's romanticism through nature. Curator: Thinking about those potential dual readings highlights that potent ability of the symbolic. Editor: This image holds an important historical commentary, but transcends the everyday world through its careful compositional elements. It asks important questions even to a contemporary viewer.