Fireworkstravaganza

Just like Icelandic food, Icelandic fireworks merit their own conversation. I had never been to a country as fireworks-mad as I am… and I’ve been in Asia for Lunar New Year. Enter Iceland.

A truth – but joke at the same time – of Iceland is that they have a lot of “most x per capita” records. It’s the nature of a small country. Most professional footballers per capita. Most authors per capita. Most energy generated per capita. If you ever have a reason to spend New Year’s Eve in Iceland, you would not be hard pressed to say, “most fireworks purchased per capita” either.

For what it’s worth, the fireworks sales support ICESAR, the Icelandic Association for Search & Rescue. So you can feel doubly good when blowing things up.

All of Reykjavík (or so it seems) gathers at Hallgrímskirkja after the annual NYE special Skaupið is finished, of course. There are actual blast zones designated for lighting fireworks, but beyond that it’s fairly a free for all.

You have everything from full-on rockets to much tamer sparklers, spinners, and cone fountains. All of the rockets have the advantage of exploding near the absurdly picturesque background of the church tower.

I could do this every New Year for the rest of my life.

More Snakes + Funerals

I don’t know what it is about Iceland that lends itself to CinemaScope aspect ratio, but I can’t drag myself away from it. (I wrote about my feelings on the ultra ultra wide here.) Nothing much to say, other than omg is this the most beautiful place or what?

Snakes + Funerals

In Mexico City (and in returning from Mexico City), I felt an urgency to create. A rush of frustrated energy. A rebirth of a part of my soul I'd thought I'd lost for good.

(No one said I wasn't dramatic.)

I returned to digital photography in the latter half of 2014 for purely documentary purposes. Film stocks were vanishing right and left, and I'd moved 2,500 miles from my C-41 lab, just to add a layer of complication. It never felt quite like art. It still feels like studio work or stock.

Digital photography without introspection, without focus, and without process is easily soulless. Sterile, perfect, real images of real things. In truth, the medium is limited only in what you allow yourself to do with it, and adherence to supposed orthodoxy seems unnecessary at a time when producing any work is a struggle itself.

In seeking satisfaction for these urges, this energy, I thought – for whatever reason – of Fritz Lang in Le mépris giving his commentary on CinemaScope and went instantly to that aspect ratio. And much to my surprise, it worked. It worked for crowds. It worked for small, self-contained scenes. It worked for the lush tableaus of the Icelandic countryside, to the surprise of no one. Had the opportunity presented itself, I’ve no doubt it would have worked for snakes – and funerals.

You can take a look at the full gallery below or here.