Saturday 27 February 2010

you have to suffer for a good photo- part 2!



test for portrait work in Skagastrond- anna on a mountain of snow
some images from Open House at NES Artists Residency
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/photo.php?pid=30749529&id=1573697828

you have to suffer for a good photo

the weather is supposed to get better. yesterday night the storm was really strong, this morning very windy/snowy so no chance of a long walk.
I got two medium format rolls developed back from Reykjavik, good results!
today i am photographing near the house, test shooting for portraits.
Seeing Olafia so covered up the other day during the storm gave me more ideas for portraits: as i previously wrote coming to Iceland in winter is bound to make anyone think how the weather affects people. Olafia was so covered up, with a skii mask and another protective mask for mouth and nose that she was unreconizable...so is it a portrait if the subject cannot be seen under all that clothing? or are the clothing, dictated by the harsh weather, a symbol of that personlife & relation to the weather? Olafia said once that she can only live on a island near the ocean. Weather and nature are part of icelandic life.
Today i will test a "portrait in winter" making Anna (flatmate and performing artist here at NES) stand in the blizard...you have to suffer for a good photo.

Friday 26 February 2010

after the storm




yesterday we had to leave the "Open House" early and get a lift to the flat due to the increasingly strong wind.
Today, surprisingly, the wind is not so strong and there is a bit of sun. I went for a walk for the first time in a week. It is very cold and there is a lot of snow but after a week indoor it feels like spring!
Compared to when i first arrived in a sunny-but-cold Skagastrond, the place has changed totally.
The hours of light are longer, but now the whole village is buried in snow and the snowplow goes around to free doors.
The wind has created a strange geography: some areas are nearly free of snow, just covered by a thick crust of ice, while in other points the snow has piled up in "waves" which are sometimes nearly as tall as the building, 2-3 metres. One particular building has a side nearly totally covered, with just the red border of the roof coming out.
Photographing in Iceland automatically brings the mind to think how much the landscape and people are affected by the weather. This month i will continue to photograph places and spaces but i will also focus on people...the first victim was the postwoman, i saw her in her red uniform passing the street and run after her for some test photo...
yesterday we had Open House at Nes Artists Studio, which, despite the bad weather had a good turnout. We had postponed then event from tuesday to thursday due to bad weather, but the storm was still on in full force; despite that, peopel from Skagastrond did turn up in a good number.
Today photographer Morgan Levy is leaving NES going back to New York.
Visit her website:
http://www.morganrlevy.com/

Wednesday 24 February 2010

Jee Hee left NES

JEE HEE PARK left NES today, view her work:

http://jeeheepark.egloos.com/

thank you Arts Council England!!!


i have a very big piece of very good news!! My residency and the project "with few hours of light" and forthcoming exhibition in London will receive fundings from the Arts Council England.
Thank You Arts Council England!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday 23 February 2010

tonight!


tonight open house at NES

Monday 22 February 2010

defeat!

today i left early to photograph. i walked for an hour , leaving Skagastrond behind toward the open fields. Suddenly the wind came up and the storm started. Within minutes i could not see the road and i wasn't sure where i as. I tried to resist and continue...then accepted defeat against Icelandic winter and turned around, back home.
I think i deserve an afternoon inside researching!

Sunday 21 February 2010

geothermal monster






Geothermal monster lies there in the endless field of snow, hissing and bubbling.

Bjarnarflag is the geothermal area near lake Myvatn and the village of Reykjahlio whilst Kroflustoo is a geothermal power station, both in the Krafla area (Krafla is a volcano).
According to my guide book farmers did attempt to grow potatoes in Bjarnarflag but these emerged from the ground already boiled. Yummy, a massive field of jacket potatoes!

In Bjarnarflag there is a geothermal field with steam coming from the ground and a hot lake (too hot to bathe), pipelines and a factory building. We visited this are when it was already becoming dark; the steam comes out from vertical pipes stuck in the ground, very un-romantic landscape and I found very interesting how, compared to the gorgeous and wild landscapes around Myvatn, in this area the human intervention is so visible.

Even more strangely interesting is to find a ugly factory building in Kröflustöò. This is the geothermal plant, a huge factory and some other smaller buildings around it. Such a fine example of non place!! I can read when it was build and why in my guide book, but apart from that it is all very anonymous and a bit scary, like it has landed there from another planet.
The wind was very strong at this point, and the vapour filled the air, making it very difficult to see what was around.
But it has made me reflect on my work here at NES in Skagastrond.

I applied with the idea of finding a community of fishermen in a small village (that's what wikipedia says!) and i found hardly any fishermen, there are no old men with fishing nets smoking a pipe.
In Skagastrond I have found it difficult to photograph people (but this will be my next step!) as there are not may people around, the harbour is incredibly quiet at all time. In fact, everywhere in Iceland seems to be very quiet by contrast to London.

My work up to now has concentrated on photographing this isolation and the human traces left in the landscape: I have photographed found objects, houses and sheds spread in the field. I walk kilometres before finding the next subject for my photographs. No one is around.
The houses and sheds lie in fields of hay and snow, like many Mary Star lost at sea.
My steps trace the geography of the territory which is connected to the human geography: a dual relationship in which the landscape/territory shapes human life whilst humans affect and leave traces of their presence in the territory.

Another interesting element for me is that i cannot place Skagastrond in time and space: all houses seem relatively new (maybe the oldest are 50-60 years old) and all look very similar. Whilst in London or in any other metropoli i can trace how the city has developed, in terms of old historical buildings, older houses and new blocks of flats, old areas and new part of the city (like the olympic area which is being build near my Leyton home), in Skagastrong I cannot do that. Maybe the Icelandic are not so keen in preservation and keeping old buildings.
In such a small village, the church seems brand new, white and clean. If you go to any small village through mainland Europe the church has to be at least a couple of centuries old (old churces are compulsory!). The lack of people, the overwhelming space available and the impossibility in placing it in time make Skagastrond such a fascinating alien place to me!

Saturday 20 February 2010

road trip part 3 - Dimmuborgir






We stayed at Dimmuborgir, a place that surprisingly shares its name with a Norvegian black metal band (http://www.dimmu-borgir.com).
The icelandic Dimmuborgir is a huge lava fields with very odd and beautiful shapes. Covered in snow it was magic: the black of the lava was covered by a ton of snow, only its edges visible. The wind was very strong, we were the only tourists in the area and it was great to be the first to walk into all that unspoilt snow. More snow than i have ever seen.
We slept in a tiny cottage on the shore of lake Mvatn, which was part frozen.
I am glad i saw this area during winter , totally covered in snow and with no one around and of course i wish i had stayed longer to walk, see and photograph more.

road trip-part 2 from Akureyri to Myvatn




after lunch we left Akureyry heading for Myvatn. The road takes out of the firod, passing near the water: Akureyri water is calm and cold steel color and the view very beautiful. The landscape was endless white snow, and despite the ice on the road, Icelandic drive very scarily fast in their 4x4.
Westopped at Godafoss, a gorgeous waterfall, we had to walk in deep snow to photograph it but the view was worth it!
near Godafoss there are some houses and a hotel: these little spots of color in the white attract my view more than the landscape, as my interest here in doing a residency in Iceland is in how community survie in such extreme landscape

road trip part 1- Ice Cream in Akureyri





we left thursday early morning toward Akureyri, me Morgan, JeeHe and Nadine (who all are here at NES as artists in residency).
We travelled on the Ring Road (Iceland main road which goes around the country...my toughts went to the M25. I miss you London Orbital!), surrounded by a glorious white landscape, stopping here and then to photograph.
Travelling on the main road the landscape is dotted with farms, little spots of colours in the endless white. Differently from the area around Skagastrond, these tend to be bigger, closer to one another and in better conditions, it is clear that are in use and someone lives and work there. Around Skagastrond, I am never sure if the sheds and farms are abandoned or if i am walking into someone's garden.
We reached Akureyri, the "capital of the north" a quiet pretty town of 16.000 people and went for a walk.
We had ice cream...Morgan asked for directions and a burly men told her she could just eat snow! Well eating Ice cream when outside is -10 sounds a bit of a contraddiction but hey,the Akureyri ice cream parlour had a lot of character, altought ice cream was a far cry from italian gelato.
We went into a cafe'/bookshop...and there i saw it! A copy of OK Magazine!!
I normally don't read glossy mags, but this casual encounter made me realise how much i miss london! So i had a bit of a read, Katie Price got married again this time to her cross-dressing cage-fighting boyfriend and realised how i read this kind of magazines only when i wait for takeway in Curry King, Leyton!
a ring road+ a decent cappuccino+ Ok magazines...little signs of London!
Leyton, home sweet home, I miss you!

Friday 19 February 2010

dimmuborgir



i have just returned from road trip Skagastrond-Akureyri-Myvatn/Dimmuborgir
Dimmuborgir= snow. rocks.snow.rocks. more snow. more rocks. amazing.
many more photographs to come...i'll post again tomorrow
goodnight

Wednesday 17 February 2010

Ash Wednesday part 2 (My Martin Parr moment)



Today's Ash Wednesday and the children's party in Skagastrond community hall was a perfect occasion to test my new ring flash,for which i don't have yet the proper lens adaptor. It's coming by post...my little adapter is currently being help hostage by custom, give it back! Anyway, without adaptor i had to hold the flash in front of the lens which was a bit of a nightmare, quite difficult to operate, so results were a mixed bag.
I love my ring flash! paparazzi-style snapping at a party with crazy costumes using a super-harsh ring flash was my Martin Parr moment :of course the results are nowhere as good as Parr's work but i think the twin girl in their 80s aerobic outfit look amazing and were really suited this type of light!

Ash Wednesday






today is Ash Wednesday and it's Carnival in Skagastrond.
The celebration is a mixture of Halloween (children go around and sing songs to get sweets - but there is no trick or treat thing here) and the Carnival which is celebrated in mainland Europe this time of the year, just before the start of "quaresima" (in italian) the 40 days of fast before Easter.
There was a party for children in the town all, and the costumes were amazing, mostly handmade and really creative. My favorite were : the walking toilet and a really spooky little vampire

Tuesday 16 February 2010

hug a lamp post

today i ventured out in the storm. I had to hug a lamp post as the wind was pushing me away. Fortunatly the locals did not see this!
I made it to NES studio and did a bit of research, then a bit bored and a bit overtly optimistic I went out again to photograph. The wind was strong but not as bad as yesterday, i walked in the fields and my feet went down 20-30 cm in the snow, I managed to take some good shot with my hasselblad.
The wind grew. I decided to continue and kept walking. All was withe and i was so concered with the wind that I walked in to a ditch filled with snow, i felt my feet going down and found myself stuck in the snow up to my tights, and i was slowly descending in snow up to my waist.
I had to crawl out. Again, Luckily the locals did not see me!
"i'm not suicidal, I'm an artist in residency"

Monday 15 February 2010

Snow, a lot of snow. Wind, a lot of wind

Since yesterday there has been a snowstorm. The wind is so strong it kept me awake at night, anxiety dreams in which my leyton flat was being blown away , then waking up in Iceland!
Today i tried to go out, heading toward the harbour, curious to see if the fishermen were going out at sea. This week I would like to interview and start photographing Sigurjon, the fisherman I have met at Porrablot.
I never made it to the harbour. I simply could not walk in that wind, it was pushing me and pulling me...quick, back inside!

Sunday 14 February 2010

snow, finally!



snow came in ful force to Skagastrond today.
I woke up at 9 am to see a blizard ...wind is very strong, i have ventured out for 10 minutes and had to head back and put more clothes on, as well as a protective sleeve for my camera.

Saturday 13 February 2010

things i have met whilst walking up the mountain




things i have met whilst walking up the mountain yesterday

Friday 12 February 2010

Thursday 11 February 2010

pot luck






the other night we had "pot luck" which is the icelandic/US short name "inviteyourfriendsoverandhavelotsoffood".
having been in Skagastrond for 11 days now my only problem seems to be that i really miss ASDA Leyton. I am totally unable to buy food sensibly in the local supermarket, which may lack a bit of vegetables but sells mostly british brands just like ASDA. However i think i am suffering from withdrawl symptoms: lack of non places. Taken out of my environment of super-huge supermarket i am unable to function and end up eating unprobable combinations of food.
So pot luck was an eye opened as we all had to cook something, i made pizza and blueberry cheesecake. To my amazement there was salad, spinach and curry fish!! joy!
NES pot luck is the kind of social event that attracts the Mayor of Skagastrond and a great occasion to chat and learn more about the story of this village, which has given me more idea for developing my photographic work

Wednesday 10 February 2010

like shipwrecks in a sea of yellow hay



like shipwrecks in a sea of yellow hay

Tuesday 9 February 2010


i was walking in the middle of nowhere, just outside town, when a shed caught my attention. so while i am there taking a lightmeter reading a farmer gets out...i didn't notice for few minutes, and when i turned my head he was looking at me, puzzled by what i could be doing ...but he was very nice, and despite he didn't speak english, he was very polite (icelander are all very polite...can you imagine what would happen in London if you find a stranger photographing your backyard?) and showed around his farm.