Reykjavík Grapevine - 15.06.2018, Síða 18

I ventured out from the cosy and
often too comfortable 101 bubble
to meet with Sigurþór Hallbjörns-
son—better known as Spessi—in
Reykjavík’s Breiðholt neighbour-
hood, postal code 111. Acclaimed
Icelandic photographer and found-
ing member and chairman of the
Icelandic Contemporary Photogra-
phy Association, Spessi is known for
his dozens of album covers as well as
his unusual photography projects,
most notably his book ‘Bensín,’ in
which he photographed gas stations
around Iceland.
The photos in his new book,
‘111’, were taken in the towering
buildings surrounding the site of
the exhibition, RÝMD — a former
bakery in a one-story building with
a beautifully antiquated and uneven
tile floor, and so many cracks in the
wall that they could be seen through
the fresh white paint. The entrance
to the gallery is in a busy alleyway,
where buff-wearing children, snail-
paced elderly folks, and nike-clad
teenagers go about their daily lives.
Walks of life
‘111’ is a photographic portrait of
the neighbourhood and people of
Breiðholt. His portraits feature
people from many different walks
of life. Spessi feels a certain famil-
iarity in Breiðholt. “There is a
Breiðholt everywhere in the world,”
he said. Breiðholt is unlike any other
neighbourhood or community in
Iceland—Many Icelanders refer
to Breiðholt as ‘the only Icelandic
ghetto’—and Spessi has chosen to
shatter the commonly held preju-
dices that have come to exist about
the neighbourhood and its people.
Identity and pride
SSpessi’s photographic projects
focus on subcultures, which is why
he chose to photograph 111, and the
people who live there. He found that
it was important to photograph the
people of Breiðholt in order to prop-
erly represent them. “A lot of people
who live here tattoo 111 on their
chest.” he explains “It's this kind
of identity. It's more like a state of
mind, this postcode. It's like ‘I’m
from the hood’—this kind of pride.””
Well intentioned
Breiðholt was a social housing
project planned and designed in
the 70s and eventually built in the
80s. The idea was to build brightly-
coloured apartment buildings with
surrounding alleys, children’s play-
grounds, and football fields so that
children wouldn’t have to cross
busy streets to go to school in the
morning.
Breiðholt was well intentioned,
but it didn’t age well when its popu-
lation rose and the city developed
more. “It was a good thought in the
beginning, but it was a mistake,”
Spessi sighs. Breiðholt eventually
became crowded, and resulted in
both the physical and social isola-
tion of the people who lived there.
“So actually, this is wrong, it’s a
disease in the society.”
Spessi’s people
Spessi has a personal affinity
and appreciation for the people
of Breiðholt, because he relates
to them in a lot of ways. “I'm so
used to these people,” he says. “I've
been around. I was a drug addict,
a drunk, and I've been through a
lot of things. So for me to come
to a crack party—I've been there. I
grew up with my grandparents, and
they were very poor. These are my
people, and that's why I wanted to
show the world how it is.”
He explained to me the chal-
lenges he encountered in pursu-
ing this project during the past two
years and the difficulties in decid-
ing how to appropriately approach
this project. “This is a very politi-
cal show,” Spessi stresses. “I'm not
showing these people as victims.”
His intention with this project is
instead to portray these people
and their spaces in an empowering
way—in a way that authentically
and accurately represents them-
selves and their spaces, on their
own terms.
A story of survival
“When you enter someone’s inti-
mate space, that's a very interesting
spot, because then you feel some-
thing,” Spessi says. “Sometimes you
feel that they are afraid, that they
don't trust you, or there's a language
problem, so they don't understand
what you're saying, so there are all
kinds of things that happen when
you come into this [space]. When I
take portraits of those people I try
to let them choose how they present
themselves. That's why most of my
photos are kind of objective.”
His portraits evoke a lot of
emotion and different reactions
from those who view them. It is
clear that the point of the images
isn’t to create a feeling of melan-
choly or sadness. Some of the faces
look lonely, or scared—but they still
want to be seen. This isn’t made
out of pity, but rather, out of pride.
It is ultimately a story of survival
in the challenging realities of the
everyday.!
111: Straight Outta
Breiðholt
Spessi shines a light on a storied
Reykjavík suburb
Words: Juliana Iluminata Wilczynski
Photos: Spessi
The costa del Patreksfjörður comes to life for Skjaldborg
“I was a drug
addict, a drunk,
and I've been
through a lot of
things. So for
me to come to
a crack party—
I've been there.”
18 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10 — 2018
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