Ski pole in snow--Sports 1941 - 1945

Robert Frank made this photograph, 'Ski pole in snow', sometime in the 20th century, and it's all about marks and how they change things. Look at how the pole has punctured the surface. There's something violent, and also tender, about the gesture. The snow itself is a field of tiny dark and light marks, almost like individual brushstrokes, and the pole punches a clean, dark circle into that field. It's a study in contrasts. Think about the surface quality and the way the light falls. The texture of the snow, how it's both soft and granular, is really important. The starkness reminds me a little of some of Agnes Martin's more minimal canvases, but with a kind of off-kilter twist. It’s a photograph about seeing, but it is also about being there, feeling the cold, hearing the crunch. In a way, it’s about a single moment, a singular mark, and the reverberations of that moment, which is, I guess, what all art tries to be.