* “Hraun” means “lava” in Icelandic.
What does “nature” look like? Can I get close enough to photograph it? And once I’d have captured “nature”, how can I be sure that I haven’t altered its essence in any way? Those where the questions that were strewn in my path, when I debuted my Icelandic journey in September 2010.
I set out to focus my attention on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwest Iceland, a relatively small area where two thirds of the country’s population live. Affected by the typical urban sprawl and the silent yet dramatic geological pressure at the same time, the peninsula seems torn apart between an avid modernisation and the careful listening of the Earth tremors or the whispers of the elves.
There, on the barren Icelandic terrain, humans and non-humans seemed to rely on each other more than ever. I tried to photograph that mutual support (i.e. that “earthian” bond), bringing the two entities together in the frame, in a sense of fraternity.
