News/Blog

Day of the musicians

2012-05-01T18:00:41Z

Today, on a warm spring day in Boulder, I think about and send my thanks to all the musicians who have worked on the project. Inland/Outland is an ongoing relationship between visual and audio, with connections and ideas being created to interpret and convey the landscape outside the boundaries that so often seem to rule photography and our perception of what is around us.

I look forward to announcing the composers that will create the music for the Inland/Outland:Utah project, to be released autumn/winter 2012.

Special thanks to :

Daníel Ágúst Haraldsson

http://www.myspace.com/danielagust

Borgar Magnason

http://www.myspace.com/borgarmagnason/music

Matti Kallio

http://www.myspace.com/mattikallio

Enjoy the day, and enjoy the music.

Utah doing 60mph

2012-04-17T16:45:41Z

After a year of research, preperation and discussion with some very supportive locals, I have landed in Colorado. Two days of final prep before driving the long way to SLC, where I will meet up with composers from the Utah School of Music, trying to get some media interested, and be on my way down south towards Moab. Spring has arrived in Boulder, compared to Iceland, Moab will be like the hight of the best summer I get to experience.

100.000 page book?

2012-02-19T17:21:19Z

Work on a book from the project has been underway for some time now, having joined forces with the renowned photo book designer Bergdis Sigurdardottir. With over 200.000 images to work from, this will most likely be one of the most edited photo books to date, making me wonder why the hell I decided to go on another trip to the north, shooting over 1000 photos. The answer I know, but whether it makes any sense im less sure of.

The snowy frozen north did result in some amazing photographs, as the light increase from the last trip in December makes a big difference. Frozen rivers and groups of horses, stuck tractors and the early morning sun hitting the tops of mountains. I have a few ways of justifying what I do.

Freezing my ... off.

2012-01-01T22:15:56Z

10 days before the years shortest day, I passed a dark and snowy landscape on my way to the north. Sunrise and sunset seem to coincide, giving the smallest window of light to photograph. For 3 hours I photographed blurred bluish images of farm lights and out of focus mountain tops. The snow finally turned white, and the outside world appeared, frozen. The streets of Akureyri were covererd with snow and the cold felt bitter. Inhaling felt like freezing the insides of the lungs, and the short walk to the grocery felt refreshing.

Morning after I took the bus to the town of Egilsstaðir. The darkness that wouldnt lift for the first 2 hours was not the only issue, as the -25c temperatures froze the heat from my hand as I leaned against the window to photograph. Every 15 seconds I had to wipe the inside of the window of the quick forming ice, or forget and sense the blurry effect take over the viewfinder.

The few hours of sunlight did make the trip worthwhile, with mountaintops bathed in a pink light of the setting sun, with the foreground going into the shadow. Stories were told of the solitary characters who in earlier times were the only ones to venture into this landscape in winter, searching for lost sheep as the threat of winter meant some else and more then a chilly bus ride.

Back on Ice

2011-12-05T13:41:10Z

Even the Moab winter is warm, and the desert sandstone contradicts the Icelandic winter. While bacon breakfeasts and pickup trucks maintain their charm in my mind, the cold desolate countryside of Iceland pulls me back, and tomorrow I´ll be on a bus passing these cold empty landscapes, camera in hand.

Wyoming

2011-10-23T23:34:39Z

Along with photographer James Balog, I headed to Wyoming, the sparsely populated cowboy state, where shotguns and pick-up trucks rule supreme. The Grand Tetons in sight, I aimed my weapon, my semi automatic Nikon, shooting, shooting, hitting my grand prey of 9.000.000 millions years old mountains. Blue skies, massive mountains, and 400 hundred photographs created the first Inland/Outland video in the United States of America.

Truckloads of coffee, acid and a knife threat

2011-09-09T12:49:56Z

With my departure to the US approaching, I have been using every chance to head out of town and shooting the autumn feeling that is creeping over the landscape. Sheep have come down from their mountain grazing and sheepishly stand in their dozens on green patches of grass while the mountain tops have gotten their white top crowns. The sun is traveling lower in the sky, casting a more golden light on everything in its path.

So with all this to pull me along, I left Reykjavik on a thursday morning, heading to Akureyri in the north. 30 meters per hour winds greeted me and the truck driver under the steep mountain of Hafnarfjall. We and the cargo of coffee beans reached safety, and soon I boarded a second truck for the last stretch in the north. The cargo was death in a container. Tons of some sort of industrial acid shook the car as I photographed or read the safety instructions in case of accident. Burns, explosions, corrosion etc. Bottom line- RUN!

700 images were on the memory card as we rolled into Akureyri, were soon I was sitting sipping an espresso in a local coffeehouse, minding my own business. A young traveler started a conversation that was leading nowhere except to misunderstandings. His eyes constantly on me with a strange mad stare, he got ready to leave. As he did, he pulls up his pants, revealing a large hunting knife by his ankle, madly speaking of what such instruments were used for by his best friend in Afghanistan. Nice way to be greeted, but i would have been content with only the cold chill in the air.

In the night I boarded a truck, being warned of some strong winds on the way. Nothing new there, and the setting sun was casting a mellow light to calm me down after the knife scene. As light gave way to darkness, conversations reached the more interesting subjects of life, and all was good. At that point sleep was the only thing left to do after changing trucks and heading back to Akureyri. Sleep I did, but by the constant sound of sport cars and screeching tires outside my downtown hostel.

So here i sit, in a huge gas station where Madonna sings her 80´s hits to the anouncement of fried food being ready. Im ready to take a break for a few days.

Birthday in a truck

2011-08-23T12:49:19Z

With the onset of autumn, or at least the feeling aproaching, I headed to Akureyri in the north on a monday morning. My companion trucker´s name just happened to be mine-Svavar. Changing trucks midway, I rolled into the half cloudy deep valleys of the north, ending in the nicest city (and the only one!) in the north. A quick late lunch, cup of coffee, and I was on my way back to Reykjavik. 2000 images had been shot since 9 am, and nearing midnight, I realized I´d spend part of my 30th birthday in a gas station and freight truck. There I met the truck driver who shares my name, and he kindly offered me dinner. With steak and french fries, truckers and a few of their wifes, 2000 photographs and the first hours of my thirties, it all seemed fitting. Last years birthday was spent on a bus from the east. Inland/Outland being time consuming is an understatement.

Snæfellsnes Exhibition

2011-06-29T12:50:25Z

The morning started with howling winds and flagpoles blowing over. Running around putting up the last prints and connecting the sound for the 3pm opening. The crowd and officials went to church, where at one point I was introduced for a speech about the project. With me nowhere in sight, the mass came to the exhibition, where i held my photographic sermon, finally ending in the minister of Environment starting the Inland-Snæfellsjökull video loop. Todays schedule includes relaxing and enjoying the peninsula´s magic.

Skaftafell: from ashes to exhibition and back

2011-06-09T13:09:11Z

Inland-Vatnajökull opened on June 4th at the Vatnajökull National Park in Skaftafell. Video running and prints on the wall, up until some time next autumn/winter 2011. I spent 5 days setting up and then lounging about and got to know many passing by tourists and local staff. Ash blew in a dry northern wind, but all is reasonably fine out there in the east, and the black/grey look on the glaciers has some strange charm to it.

600-1000 people come through the facilities each day, making the work appear before the eyes of many this summer.

The music to this newest work was composed by Daniel Ágúst Haraldsson, and musical assistance from Davíð Þór Jónsson and Matti Kallio.

Thanks to Klaus, Regína and the rest of the staff, volunteers fighting the Lupine and Friends of Vatnajökull, for making the show possible.