Icelandic Echoes Book

Description

Icelandic Echoes Book

“…a very Icelandic experience, filled with a sense of what is missing and the uncanny feeling that it holds on—as much more than ghostliness or memory, but rather a living and breathing presence in our lives.” – Kári Gíslason

A visual exploration of Iceland through the beauty and soul of its abandoned and empty places, viewed through the lens of award-winning landscape photographer Matt Palmer.

An 10x14inch hardcover photography book featuring 125+ pages / just over 100 photographs of beautiful soulful abandoned places and artifacts in the Icelandic wilderness.

Perfect for lovers of abandoned places, urban exploration, alternative travel, landscape photography and in particular Iceland.

Foreword written by Icelandic Australian author Kári Gíslason, thank you Kári!

Price includes postage in Australia.

Please note: For Bank Transfer, International Orders or multiple book orders please email gallery@alpinelight.com.au with your name, postal address, and the number of books you wish to purchase. We will provide you with bank account details ASAP. Thank you!

Icelandic Echoes Background

“When you travel to Iceland for the first time, you begin planning your next return on the flight home.” That’s the advice I give to the many people that come to me for advice on traveling to Iceland. It happened to me.

After my first visit to a very different Iceland in 2012, I spent the long flight home pondering how I could come back. I also wondered how, as a photographer, I would begin to capture this place. It was clear my next visit in Winter 2015 would require more of a set focus. I decided what called to me were the beautiful monuments to Icelandic perseverance – the ruins to be found throughout the Icelandic wilderness.

This set in motion over 200 hours pouring over records, maps, and anything I could find that referenced buildings that had been abandoned. It was difficult with materials only being available in Icelandic, and some locations were found simply by finding ruined looking rooves on satellite imagery. Photographers I knew personally who were based in Iceland would respond that they had no idea where these places were and that I knew more of them than they did!

That wasn’t the only difficulty – traveling in Winter meant that several of the locations that I thought were essential to document for this broader story were inaccessible. My most painful memory was driving past the ruin that inspired it all… Bakkasel. There was nowhere safe to stop and snow was piled either side of the road leaving a narrow channel. I had to continue with nothing but a glimpse in the rear-view mirror before the falling snow consumed the view completely.

It turns out that when you travel to Iceland for the second time, you also begin planning your next return on the flight home. I wondered how long this cycle might continue…

My last visit with Mieke in Autumn of 2023 saw the realisation of the project, but it also offered me something I wasn’t quite expecting. The opportunity to see how things had changed over the past 8 years. Some buildings had collapsed, some had been adopted by street artists with others vandalised, and some were being renovated to capitalise on the bursting tourism industry that had expanded 10 times over since my first visit. Those places of historical interest, perhaps referenced in the Icelandic Sagas, were now sign-posted and raising money for renovations. I had the realisation that this book isn’t just photos of beautiful places with stories within their walls, but also a time capsule of how things are and how they used to be.

Gratitude

A big thank you to the 74 supporters who first helped fund this project by pre-ordering through Kickstarter. Thank you to my wife and fellow owner of Alpine Light Gallery Mieke, and to Sarah, Cody and Michael for your feedback during production. And another thank you to Kári who introduces the book so beautifully.