Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.08.2014, Page 12

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 11 — 2014
Now, after four trips to Iceland over a
total of five months, I have taken pic-
tures of around 220 people. With the
exception of Grimsey island, I have been
to and stayed in most parts of the coun-
try: Vík and the Westman islands in the
South, Höfn in the South-East, Berunes,
Egilsstaðir, Husey and Vopnafjörður
in the East, Langanes peninsula in the
North-East, Akureyri in the North, Si-
glufjörður in the extreme North, the
West Fjörds, Flatey island, Snæfellsnes
peninsula in the West and Reykjavík in
the South-West…
The time I spent with every photo-
graphed person and the information
he or she shared with me has varied
depending on whether or not the per-
son was in a hurry. Sometimes it was a
brief encounter: I would just come up to
someone on the street, ask if they would
allow me to take a picture of them.
Sometimes we would then have cof-
fee and a longer conversation together.
Some of my subjects picked me up as a
hitchhiker; others provided me with a
place to say.
Each encounter has been a unique
experience, enriching my life with sto-
ries—shorter or longer—for which I am
very grateful. Sometimes they would be
more inclined to talk about themselves,
sometimes more about Iceland in gen-
eral, sometimes about the world and life
in general. And that knowledge is very
valuable: it is the knowledge and experi-
ence of the people from a country where
humans have for the most part learnt to
live in peace and respect one another.
Technically, I mostly used a me-
dium format film camera, Yashica Mat
124 G, sometimes (in bad light or harsh
and windy weather conditions), a digital
Canon. The following are a few photos,
a small sampling of my project, which
I hope to complete in October after an-
other two months in the country.
Fascinated with the Icelandic people after my first visit
to the country in 2007, I decided to photograph 320 peo-
ple with each portrait standing for 1,000 people. To that
end I travelled all over the country and took pictures
of Icelanders of all ages—young, middle-aged, elderly—
from all walks of life—farmers, carpenters, cargo drivers,
preachers and bakers.
The ‘320
Icelanders’
Project
Varvara Lozenko is set on photo-
graphing 1/1000 of the population
Words and Photos by Varvara Lozenko
Icelandic | People