Julian Köpke

Black as a color is not so popular. In Iceland you always encounter a black, which only seems homogeneous at first glance. In fact, every black, whether in basalt or sand, is slightly inhomogeneous and interesting to the eye and not a gap.

My first encounter with the color black on Iceland was on the rocky coast near our hotel in Arnarstapi, which was easily accessible on foot. The power of the sea seemed to be best expressed in moderate long-term shots. Anyone who exposes too long will only get the average altitude of the sea level . . . .

Occasionally black was also found in buildings. At farms or at the famous Black Church of Budir, which I shot from many perspectives.

The reflection on the Vestrahörn was best achieved in the early morning at low tide on the damp black beach. The repeated flooding of the beach by waves disturbed the tripod and sometimes necessitated rapid escape movements, but they were also a prerequisite for good mirror images.

Last but not least, black and red were the dominant colours in the hot lava of the Fagradalsfjall, which we were able to see more closely on the last day of our stay.

Only a few kilometers further by car the sun began to shine and the clouds receded. In the southwest of the Reykjanes peninsula we felt the white of the lighthouse all the more radiant after our volcanic visit.

Before leaving, one last look at the waves, which are radiated by sunlight and seem to contain more energy than usual.

It is the photographer’s art to emotionally convey the mood and light during a shot. This becomes all the more difficult the greater the differences between the location of the recording and the location of the processing. When we departed from Iceland, it was only 6 degrees Celsius with nice Icelandic sunshine. In Frankfurt on arrival and in Heidelberg on the following days it was 30 degrees and more.

So it is all the more gratifying when a photo, developed late in the evening, is selected to Flickr Explore after the first 2 days of work and dead tired in the evening at 11:30 p.m. This time it is the famous Black Church of Budir. For aesthetic reasons, I had removed an empty flag pole that belonged to the cemetery.

This year, for the first time, several of my pictures were selected. To keep an overview, I have arranged all the in explores into one album.

On the way to Boudir, we drove through the Hvalfjörður Tunnel, which went alarmingly deep under the ocean. After leaving the tunnel, the rain stopped again and again and the clearing of the thunderstorm clouds over the mountains appeared in the south.

This clearance of the clouds and the breaking of the light were good signs. We had left Keflavik paralyzed by quarantine and in continuous rain. A strange ghost ship at the exit of the village with a big hole in its belly was swaying back and forth, whiped by gusts of wind and rain.

On the very sunny day of our return to Keflavik 11 days later it was gone. As befits ghost ships.

Black as dominant color

Back home in the summer heat