Eyðibýli

GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER: Vala Arnadóttir

Vala writes: On one of my trips last summer we found an old abandoned summer cottage by a beautiful lake called Hreðavatn in Borgarfjörður. The human residents had abandoned this lovely orange and pink cottage but these adorable sparrows had moved in and made their nest on the kitchen shelf next to the coffee-filters. The children thought this to be such an adventure. we found little treasures in the house, like old colouring-books, retro tin cans with psychadelic- and disney-prints and handpainted platters. On the second floor there were 6 built-in bunks for children: this had obviously once been a house filled with children, laughter and good memories. My children were so sad that "the family" had abandoned this adorable cottage and left it to rot that we decided to leave the treasures to honor the children if they would change their minds and come back for them..

Away

GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER: Gustavo Marcelo Blanco

Gustavo writes: I was living close by this street that leads up to Hallgrimskirkja and always wanted to capture it. The name is an inside joke. I gave it to a friend as a wedding present. I have actually seen it on the wall in his house. I shot it digitally twice, the later time off the computer screen, hence the funky effect.

The street is Skothúsvegur, which crosses over Tjörnin, the Reykjavik city lake. The name derives from the city's Shooting Club, which had it's headquarters at Tjarnagata 35, a house that sits just off of this road.

Many thanks to Gustavo, who currently resides in Amsterdam where he is earning his BA in Filmmaking (he is also a movement recoding artist), for supplying this beautiful image. Please be sure to check out more photos by him at Squared Image Dump.

Perception

GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER: Today's guest photographer is Valentína Jóhannsdóttir. This shot is an absolute mind-bender, and I was completely unable to see what the photo was of until she told me. Can you guess? *

How we experience our reality depends, of course, on how we perceive it. For many here in Iceland, the current reality is not such a pleasant one: the state of the nation is still undefined, and heading into a third winter of discontent does not seem like a happy prospect. (For a decent summation of how things stand here on the Lava Rock, read this interview in the Reykjavik Grapevine with Iceland's Minister of Finance.)

We can choose, though, to see things from another angle, and appreciate the luxury of living on this surprisingly verdant island. We are blessed, for example, with what so many do without: clean water. For that alone, I give thanks every day.

*It's a grassy lawn, bleached by sunlight, blued by shadows and smudged by movement! By the way, Valentína is my 13 year old daughter : )

Still

Our gorgeous Mio, and the 75 year old Bing & Grøndahl porcelain figurine I found of him at the amazing Fríða Frænka antique store in the heart of Reykjavik, decorate our living room window. How a Danish artist of the early twentieth century could have known our cat so well, I'll never know : )

Bay

Bay, originally uploaded by blue eyes.

A young tourist couple sat at the edge of Faxaflói Bay last Sunday evening enjoying the 9 pm sunshine and a good view of Paul Allen's yacht, Octopus which anchored in the waters off of Reykjavik for a week-long treasure hunt (read more here.)

And speaking of big boats, could data ships be a potentially viable concept here as they are in San Francisco Bay? We've got the energy...

Rock

This building and its companions, nestled into the foot of a cliff on the south coast of Iceland between Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss, are probably my all time favorite structures on our island. I assume they were used as livestock shelters, built as they are as extensions of the gnarled but somehow soothing rock that towers above them.

It reminds me of the home of a girlfriend of mine in Cupertino when I was ten or eleven. We lived in an Eichler home exactly like the one in this picture , and she lived in one as well, but with a different floor plan. All Eichler designs have the common conceit of allowing the outdoors into the home by use of walls of glass, plant-filled atriums, skylights and high open-beam construction. This is fairly common in modern homes today, but in the 1950's this was all extremely cutting edge. What I found so appealing about my girlfriend's home was that there was a huge tree growing up through the enclosed courtyard in the center of her home. We had pretty shrubs and plants in ours, but she had a whole tree!

I think I would like to wake up in the morning and be able to reach out and run my fingers along a wall of stone that was once a lava flow, now frozen in time, softened into smooth curves and ripples by the elements. I would feel protected by the immensity of the cliff above me, like a baby penguin secure at daddy's feet. It would be wonderful knowing I was sharing the rock with ravens and eagles and mosses and ferns, and that I was integrated into the natural landscape while still experiencing human architectural ingenuity. The best of both worlds.

Some day I will live so close to the ocean that the sounds of the waves will lull me to sleep, and a tree will grow through the center of our home, and ancient rock will comprise a wall, or a floor. Glass will flow the sun and the stars into our home and every day will be a symphony of the elements enveloping our lives.

Ad

I got a call from an acquaintance in March asking if I'd mind acting in a commercial for the Keflavík Airport. The casting call was for an American speaking woman, and I happened to be the first person that came to mind. I tried to help look around for someone else, but ultimately the director chose me.

So one evening in late March we filmed the ad and did a photo shoot at the Blue Lagoon. They dolled me up, almost ridiculously so for a person taking a dip in a glorified hot tub, and for three hours or so I spoke my lines with American verve and smiled with my eyes in best Tyra Banks fashion. (This shot was taken towards the end when I was almost smiled out.) I'm not quite sure what the director was thinking, having me all prettied up, especially as my character (Anna Wright :) was supposed to be on a quick layover on the way to Europe (do we US born and bred wear this much makeup for red-eye flights over the Atlantic? Umm, no.) There are four other ads in the series with other international characters, and I think the whole thing is supposed to be a bit tongue in cheek.

I had a blast, regardless, of course got nicely compensated, and now have the honor of having my photo (looking kind of like I'm wearing an evening gown and have been photoshopped into the Blue Lagoon:p ) and commercial spread throughout our international airport, as well as in magazines like Altantica and Iceland Review. The best part is how the gig came about: via one more sweet connection in our pretty little city.