Why I Love Photographing the Beauty of Iceland

Martin Schulz, Aðalheiður Ormarsdóttir and myself are publishing a limited edition high quality photo book called ´Icelandic Seasons´ – you can support the project by pledging your support on the crowdfunding site Karolina Fund. In this article Martin explains what the ´Icelandic Seasons´ project means to him and why he is so fascinated with Iceland. 

Some years ago I met Jón [from Stuck in Iceland] online. He invited me to write as a guest author for his site time. From the first words I read on his site I was pretty sure that it would be the perfect place for my words and my pictures. A site about Iceland, run by an Icelander.

Jón told me he was fascinated by my pictures and from the start he wanted to publish them in a beautiful coffee table book. When he came up with the idea of starting a a crowdfunding project on Karolina Fund I was hooked. The idea to create a book as a cross border production in the country where I think that my pictures belong to, to create and publish it there was something which seemed to come directly out of my heart.

Jón started project planning while I started choosing the pictures which we would use for our book. In October I went over to Iceland for the 15th time. In this trip I sat down with Jón and Aðalheiður, a really skilled designer that Jón had recruited for the project. We were able to decide on what the book should look like and select the pictures for it.

In my visits I have explored Iceland from the shore to the interior highlands. After a tour around the Iceland I started to pick certain parts of the island and explored them in detail. My first travels were during summer. I found out very quickly that Iceland is a country which is worth to visit all year round. After a spring trip to see the  Eyjafjallajökull eruption I went on my first autumn and winter trips.

In the book you will find pictures from all around the island. It will feature pictures from well known places, but also hidden gems. Iceland is full of natural wonders and awesome places which you can travel to thousand times and you will still find something new to explore. During my visits I was able to witness the great power of nature as well as how different it can look on each occasion you experience. Iceland is a place where you find things like the northern lights, impressive highlands and great festivals such as Eistnaflug.  Iceland has taught me how small we humans are in the face of nature. I also learned to appreciate the great effort made by the people who settled Iceland. All of this I try to capture in my pictures.

In my photographs* I try to capture Iceland through the different seasons. My goal is to capture the beauty of the different seasons and display true beauty of Iceland.

Nearly all my pictures remind of the moment when they were taken and that they bring back those feelings I had at that time when I took them.

There are four locations which I really love. The first one is the unbelievable glacial lagoon called Jökulsárlón and the surrounding area. I love this region so much, that I asked my wife, Alice, there if she would like to marry me.

The second place is the area around Búðir located on the Snæfellsnes peninsula. A place where you can truly spend your wedding anniversary while the sun rises at morning – so as we did.

A more hidden gem is a great waterfall called Brúarfoss. To see the thousand little waterfalls running down into a deep blue rift is really unbelievably awesome.

Another place on Snæfellsnes peninsula is a mountain called Kirkjufell. I spend so many mornings, evenings and nights at that location that I know it really perfect. A picture showing this mountain with the northern lights dancing above is possibly the best one I ever took.

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