Iceland review - 2012, Qupperneq 24

22 ICELAND REVIEW
PhOTOGRAPhY
the camera in England and bought lenses made between 1860 and 1880.
“They give the pictures this old texture,” Hörður says in explanation of
his dedication.
Wet plate technology requires hazardous chemicals; Hörður had to
have their import and use approved by the Ministry of Health and police
authorities, a process which took four months. Eventually, he was cleared
to start shooting portraits. “First I arrange my subjects. Then I pour collo-
dion onto the plate, a mixture of ether, dissolved cotton wool and alcohol,
which vaporizes and turns into a kind of glue. Next comes silver nitrate,
which after three minutes has become fastened in the glue. Then I can
take the picture.”
Afterwards he must hurry to the mobile dark room in his car to develop
the picture, which only takes about one minute. However, it can take
up to eight seconds to take the picture and so his subjects must remain
absolutely still in the meantime. “First they must take a deep breath and
then exhale. Then they cannot breathe or blink—otherwise the photo is
ruined,” he explains. This is why people in old pictures always seem so
serious.
Hörður had the perfect opportunity to put the wet plate photo tech-
nology to the test during the annual medieval market at gásir, a historical
marketplace outside Akureyri, hosted July 20-22 by gásakaupstaður and
Akureyri Museum. Merchants, metal workers and handcrafters come from
all over the country and around the world, dress up in medieval attire and
present and sell their goods in custom-made tents. Some play the part
the entire weekend. “If the weather is good, they even sleep in the tents,”
Hörður says. These ‘medieval merchants’ made the ideal models. “I took
most of the pictures the last day when people had become dirty with soot
around their noses after breathing in all that smoke. I liked that look.”
Hörður is planning to exhibit his wet plate photographs next year. 