a long mad rambling...part 1.

This week, as I had to come to Reykjavik to get my camera fixed, I took the opportunity to explore the south of Iceland, and I went to Vestmanneyjar (Westmann Islands), which is a totally different experience from Skagastrond.
Vestmannaejar’s has about 4000 inhabitants (much more than Skagastrond) all concentrated on the island, while in Skagastrond there is a centre then farms spread around, few people on a large area.
Vestmannaeyjar has a strong fishing industry of which the inhabitants are really proud (with a short walk down the harbour I was invited to go on a trawler, to visit a fish factory, everyone was chatting to me and everyone seemed to know everyone) plus during summer is a very popular tourist destination: it was very rainy and empty when I visited but still is a place where foreigners and travelers are common. A juxtaposition to the 6 weeks of silence and solitude of Skagastrond, during which I have met very few people (excluding the great company of the residency people!).
So I went back to read my original application to NES artist residency:
“My intent is to live within the community of Skagaströnd and portray its people and their everyday lives. I am interested in representing people in both their work and home environments, with particular interest for these who work in the fishing industry, the traditional industry of this town.…Skagaströnd also represents a contrast to my own cultural background and the people I have portrayed before… I have grown up in warm countries and big cities. Although I now live in London, my work has continued to be centered on the representation of my own Italian cultural identity and during my travels I have predominantly worked in similar environments such as Tehran, Iran, with their warm climate and busy metropolitan life.
Having spent most of my life living in large cities, I am interested in working within a small community such as Skagaströnd, which has far fewer inhabitants than my London neighbourhood, and has a very different culture and climate. Through my photography, I would like to create a relationship with subjects from the area to explore how these differences in human and physical geography affect their cultural identity…”
Reading this, I reflect on how much my work in Skagastrond has changed! So much from the original “plan”! In my head I had created an image of the place and made plans of what to do. Of course the challenge of doing a residency in a small place, off the tourist route, in a country in which I have never been before, means adapting my work to what I found.
It means contrasting my idea of the place as well as myself to the reality of the place.
As I have written before, Skagastrond is totally different from what I expected. First, there is no fishing community at all. The harbour is almost empty, rarely there are boats unloading fish. And during the winter, like the past month of February, the street as so empty that I often wondered if there is a community at all.
In Vestmannaeyjar 4000 people live in a very confined area, strictly delimited by nature (the bad tempered volcanoes): they are used to live in each other pockets. In Skagastrond, 500 people have plenty of space, the human geography is made of single units rather then conglomerates.
People in Skagastrond live in their own houses and in winter they only move by car, even for small distances, which means the street are empty and meeting a person is an exception. They have activities (yoga knitting classes,…) and jobs but I don’t see them, I am the outsider.The most movement is the “migration” of the children that at lunchtime cross the road into the canteen.
My project has changed radically.
My masterplan of photographing the fishing community as in straight portraits went out of the window. There is no fishing community, as simple as that. And if it is not there, I cannot photograph it. One of the few boats took me out at sea, looking bemused when I explained that I have no interest in fishing, that I am a vegetarian, and that my interest is in humans, in life and labour in such a remote place. I ended up with lots of photos of the same 3 fishermen proudly holding massive sea monsters (seriously, I am now becoming vegan!). It was a unique experience, but photographing on a boat would take me months and months and months to obtain the understanding and trust that is needed to show not fishes but human condition!
I did try to photograph people. I got to photograph very few. The few that I manage to find.
One big interest for me was the perhaps simplistic view of how the weather affects people. It may sound simple and easy…till you have 10 days of snowstorm Skagastrond style, snow that blinds you and wind so strong that tips you over. You try that, then you will stop thinking that “talking about the weather” is a simple silly thing.
I took a great portrait of Olafia, she is wearing so much protective gear that it is nearly impossible to understand who that person is. But that was a rare chance on a day in which she didn’t have a car. Encounters here are scarce. I chased the postwoman down the road, in her bright red attire was persistent against the wind (brave woman!).
Signy put an advert for me asking people to be photographed during the bad weather. To get out in the snow. No replies. No one volunteered to be photographed.
On one side I understand that people may be so used to a lifestyle in which during the winter time they stay indoors and why oh why would they get out to be photographed?
On the other hand I think in such a small place having a residency should be seen as a great thing and people should make an effort.
I have often wondered how different it would be if I had come here in summer, if that could have meant to meet more people in the street and establish the kind of connection that leads to a good portrait.
I could have forced residency people to pose and set it up, I did test the portraits on Anna…but setting up a portrait in the storm has not got the same effect as meeting someone in the storm. So as people did not took the streets I simply did not took many portraits.
If in Vestmanneyjar within hours I was chatting to everyone, one thing I have felt in Skagastrond was the difficulty to make interactions, and I often wondered if a place like Skagastond is ready to have an artist residency. NES offers great studio facilities which are amazing for these whose work is studio based. Or it is great for a landscape photographer (mind you, a car is needed to go around Iceland!).
But I don’t do pretty mountains and lakes.
People, places, and human traces are my thing.
Maybe as NES is the biggest residency in Iceland with about 10-15 artists coming every month, people simply don’t pay much attention to the artists. I suspect we are seen as people who comes and go and not as an asset to the town. Maybe if just a couple of artists would come to Skagastrond for a long period,lets say 6 months, every year their presence would be felt more. Or maybe it is simply that as NES is only 2 and half years old, people are still getting used to the crazy artists who want to photograph everything and everyone.
Or maybe it is that simply people do not want to get in the street when there is snow and that don’t like to be photographed! Here I have really felt the lack of human interaction: I have found it easier to photograph people in Iran, a country in which I was for a short period, with a bad political situation (cameras= identification=police) and with a lack of common language.
Portraying the elusive people of Skagastrond has been difficult, I did not want to excessively set up portraits and encounters were rare.
So you may wondering…I have written this “essay” to tell you what I have not photographed? Or what I have photographed little of?
I still think I have been good at photographing the reality of Skagastrond and explore how these differences in human and physical geography affect cultural identity. Now I rest my hands, get ready for the next post…and sorry for all the grammar mistakes!