Skiing at Sugarbush by Toni Frissell
10"x8" ($40) | 14"x11" ($85) | 20"x16" ($275) | 24"x20" ($675) | 40"x30" ($1,950)
Legendary and pioneering photographer Toni Frissell (neé Antoinette Frissell Bacon) had a fascinating career that was as long and winding as the slopes depicted here at Sugarbush. Located in the Green Mountains of Warren, Vermont, the Sugarbush Resort opened in the winter of 1958 to the delight of New England snow bunnies who were eager to jump on ski runs they had not yet experienced. Sugarbush wasn’t the only new skiing haven in America that year: a whopping twelve other major ski resorts debuted simultaneously. Greek Peak Mountain Resort in New York’s Finger Lakes, along with Bend, Oregon’s Mount Bachelor Ski Area and Aspen, Colorado’s Aspen Highlands and Buttermilk resorts were but a few of skiers’ new playgrounds.
Skiing as a practice dates back to 6,000 BC. It was adopted recreationally and competitively in America in the mid-1800s, but the sport really started to experience its first big mainstream boom a few years before Skiing at Sugarbush was taken. In fact, over 200 ski resorts opened in the U.S. between 1955 and 1980, ballooning the industry into a massive player in the ecosystem of American tourism. From the get-go, Sports Illustrated was there to cover the trend as thoroughly as the powder that covered all those peaks. Frissell, who worked commercially for the magazine in the years before her career culminated in 1967, was on the scene to document Sugarbush as an example of the nation’s increasingly plentiful winter wonderlands.
This photograph is part of a group of images that all have the same name, as Skiing at Sugarbush is the title of the Sports Illustrated article they accompanied. This particular piece, however, stands out for its composition, balance, and Frissell's signature depiction of action. The candied distant skiers and bulbous Christmas ornament-like cable cars lend pops of delightful color to the piece. Frissell’s eye was expert at doing this, as she was one of the first female photographers to work commercially using color film and had worked extensively as a fashion photographer both before and during her time documenting sports.
Squint, and you can see that the frame is divided into interlocking triangular shapes that all culminate at a vanishing point: the trees, the cables of the lifts, and the line of enthusiasts whooshing down the mountain create a visual moment as serene yet electric as skiing itself. Frissell always knew when to click the shutter button, and it’s easy to imagine that she might have had to bolt shortly after doing so here. Everyone’s headed right for her.
See you back at the lodge for some hot cocoa?
More work by Toni Frissell:
Skiing the Haute Route
Floating
Frida Kahlo standing next to an agave plant
A couple walking along the Seine River in Paris
