DAVID ROSEN
Nature at its most seductive The stunning beauty of Iceland’s landscapes continues to inspire landscape photographers around the world. Two years ago, I planned a single visit to try and capture, in monochrome, some of its most dramatic waterfalls and seascapes. Three trips later and caught up within the ever-changing restrictions of Covid-19, I find myself obsessively longing to return yet again.
Single Sea Stack It was 1982. I was 15 years old and had owned my Praktica SLR camera for a little over two years. I had just watched Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott, in my local cinema and my head was in turmoil. I had never seen such dramatic, intoxicating images. The power of black, the contre jour lighting, the visual tension. I became obsessed with trying to recreate what I had seen on the screen. Lacking both the technical skill and creative talent at that stage, I remained disappointed but undeterred.
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45 years later, with my love for photography undimmed, I had developed an intimate relationship with Photoshop and was probably deserving of shares in Canon, due to my lifelong expenditure record in camera gear. However, encouragingly, I felt I was getting gradually closer to fulfilling my ambition of capturing and creating images that mirrored the drama and tension I had witnessed in Ridley Scott’s films. Fast forward to 2018 and I am stepping off the plane at Keflavik airport for the first time. I had
spent the past two months devouring almost every book on Amazon that described the landscape and locations of Iceland. I displayed a level of excitement and anticipation that I was told by friends was verging on the manic. Within minutes of leaving the airport, I realised that my overzealous excitement was well founded. It sounds clichéd but there is something about the quality of light in Iceland that imbues almost every half decent landscape scene with a sense of drama and mystery.
Landscape Magazine Winter 2020
