Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.05.2012, Page 40

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 5 — 2012
yoga | In the buff
Icelandic yoga, Al Fresco Style, With Gooseflesh
Exploring ‘naked yoga’. Huh?
A series of coincidences and a lady
from Reykjavík took Tony Prower
from southern England to Iceland,
where he picked up a camera—an
antique Olympus—and spent many
of the nighttime hours of his first
winter in Iceland watching and cap-
turing the Northern Lights through
its lens.
Tony was captivated by Iceland, its
landscape and photography. After a
few years of juggling working at a hos-
tel for people with severe disabilities
with his newfound passion, he moved
on to set up a thriving business, tak-
ing travellers armed with some serious
digital hardware around the country to
get fantastic pictures in the unlikeliest
locations, as well as the obvious ones.
HOW ExACTLy DID THIS HAPPEN?
‘The Icelandic Naked Yoga Project’
grew from this blend of photography,
landscape and an interest in yoga, kick-
ing off when he set his camera up on a
tripod on the eerie shore of Jökulsárlón
to capture the ice and early morning
sunshine, but decided that something
more was needed for the composition.
So he stripped off, struck a tree pose
standing in the icy water and waited for
the self-timer to do its thing. The germ
of an idea grew as he towelled the feel-
ing back into his toes.
‘The Icelandic Naked Yoga Project’
is a simple enough idea. A book of pic-
tures of naked people in yoga poses
with the Icelandic landscape as a back-
drop. The pictures are taken by Tony
and by Hanna Birna Geirmundsdóttir,
who collaborated on the two-year proj-
ect.
What is striking, and what really
makes the Icelandic Naked Yoga Proj-
ect a breath of fresh air, is that this isn’t
about aloof stick-thin young women
with perfect teeth and blow-dried hair
showing off their airbrushed booty al
fresco.
Although it was initially difficult to
find sitters who were not suspicious of
the whole concept, once a few people
had bravely stripped off and stood in
the snow, a stream of willing models
began to form as the word was passed
around.
STRETCHMARKS, SPARE TyRES,
TODGERS... yUM!
The models who sat for Tony and Han-
na Birna’s cameras aren’t walking car-
toons, but real people—and it’s a plea-
sure to see. There are women and men,
young and old, big and small. There are
stretchmarks, spare tyres, todgers, a
few flabby bellies and skinny legs, as
well as gooseflesh. The goose bumps
are an integral part of the scenery as
the photos in the book aren’t all cosy
summer pictures; some were taken
with snow on the ground and enough
of it to give you a chill just looking at
the wind whipping up the Kleifarvatn
wave tops.
It shows a reality that isn’t generally
seen, both Iceland itself and the band
of commendably courageous models.
It’s not easy to strip off and stand still
when the ground is cold enough to
make your feet sting. It’s also not easy
to find a location for a shoot that’s free
enough of extremely curious passers-
by, especially with only a few scarce
hours of daylight in the depths of win-
ter.
STONES AND SKIN
The reasons for people to strip down
to their birthday suits and sit for Tony
and Hanna Birna’s cameras are as vari-
ous as the people involved. One of the
women sitters is an immigrant from
a country where nudity of any kind
would never be possible and wanted
to celebrate this new freedom. Another
wanted a reminder of her looks to take
with her as she grows older. One of the
young men involved was there for the
simplest reason of all: his girlfriend told
him to.
The other star of the book is the
landscape and alongside the waterfalls
that everyone snaps a photo of, there
are a good few of the magnificent loca-
tions that Tony’s work as a photography
guide has taken him to. The stones are
just as much the star of the book as the
skin.
It’s a great book, and a fine effort
that doesn’t take itself over-seriously.
But I can already hear the artistic es-
tablishment’s sneers, and the book
does have its shortcomings. It has some
rough edges that are part of the whole
and which add to rather than detract
from the honesty of ‘The Icelandic Na-
ked Yoga Project’.
QUENTIN BATES
TONy PROWER
MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS – Eddas and Sagas
The ancient vellums on display.
MILLENNIUM
Icelandic art through the ages. Phase one.
CHILD OF HOPE – Youth and Jón Sigurðsson
Tribute to the leader of the independence movement.
EXHIBITIONS - GUIDED TOURS
CAFETERIA - CULTURE SHOP
The Culture House – Þjóðmenningarhúsið
National Centre for Cultural Heritage
Hverfisgata 15 · 101 Reykjavík (City Centre)
Tel: 545 1400 · thjodmenning.is · kultur.is
Open daily between 11 am and 5 pm
Free guided tour of THE MEDIEVAL
MANUSCRIPTS weekdays at 3 pm,
except Wednesdays.
'The Icelandic Naked Yoga Project' is published by Skrudda and is available
at Mál og Menning and Eymundsson.