The photograph was shot by Leni Riefenstahl, one of the finest photographers and movie makers of the last century.
Skiing under the lights is surreal just as Riefenstahl captured in this photograph and the backlight can create stupefying effects, all the while dodging what's real. Skiing through it your senses are sharp as cold Winter air can make them but the things you see vary from shadow to solid without always so much to differentiate them.
It's a special sensation to ski in conditions like that but how special does it remain when you realize Riefenstahl is accused of being a full-blown NAZI collaborator and she is known to have consorted with Hitler and his top staff although she never espoused NAZI policy.
Her response was the modern day equivalent to responses for the Nuremburg trial in which all that's required is I did not know or I do not recall, the perennial bleats of the Reagan administration. That was seriously her cop after she had used many Gypsy (i.e. Roma) people for one of her movies but said later she did not know they would be returned to Auschwitz after her filming. So she thought they were going to get vacations in Puerto Vallarta?
Her excellence in art is unquestioned around the world but her excellence as a human is not solidly rooted. Maybe it's similar to Salvador Dali buddying up to Francisco Franco at one time (true). Franco was hardly a Hitler but he was still some severely damaged horseflesh.
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