As I stand here alone in Iceland
As I stand here alone, in the midst of an ancient sea of fire and brimstone,
thoughts on the insignificance of life and time fill my mind and simply, it is blown.
"As I stand here alone"
On the road to Landmannalaugar, Western Iceland
Iceland was amazing. A photographer’s wet dream. I have a great deal of emotional attachment to many, if not all of the images. Even those where I fought tooth and nail (often in vain) to keep my camera, lens front element and less successfully myself, dry still feel very fresh. The emotions the place evoked were so strong. So I’m letting them rest a while.
I’ve pulled out a few and processed them in a manner that I felt was in keeping with the drama of the environment. Some scenes struggled with contrast though have produced beautiful monochrome images others have colours so vivid I have had to tone them down so as not to make them appear surreal (even though the landscape often was).
So here’s the first. The location was in the interior of Iceland, on the road to Landmannalaugar. The road snakes and winds through the middle of the 600 year old Laugahraun lava field. The “road” is so rough that rental cars are banned and only 4x4 vehicles are permitted to drive the route.
There is nothing but rough uneven jagged rock as far as the eye can see traversed boldly by the completely linear electricity pylons standing like a monument to man’s fight to continually subjugate nature.
I felt that David Bowie’s Space Oddity was the perfect track to accompany this photograph, but whilst looking for an embeddable mp3 player I stumbled across this rather marvellous remake over on Soundcloud.
"For here
Am I sitting in a tin can
Far above the world
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do
Though I'm past
one hundred thousand miles
I'm feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go
Tell my wife I love her very much
she knows”
David Bowie - Space Oddity