Remains of Rural Life Gone By
ARCTIC TRAVEL / ICELAND
Photographer: Björn Valdimarsson
Writer: Vilborg Einarsdottir
April 2020
“When you see an aging building or a rusted bridge, you are seeing nature and man working together. If you paint over a building, there is no more magic to that building. But if it is allowed to age, than man has built it and nature has added to it – it´s so organic.”
The quote above comes from director David Lynch and is a favourite for Björn Valdimarsson, a photographer living in the remote fishing town of Siglufjörður in north Iceland. Björn has through the years focused on documenting the community, people and daily life in Siglufjörður and the neighbouring Ólafsfjörður and Fljót, resulting in some remarkable visual documentation - but he has also worked on various other long term projects. Monuments, is one of them, a series from different northerly regions of Iceland, showing ageing structures, vehicles and other man-made things that are not in use anymore. Monuments that hold stories of rural life gone by. A few waiting to be restored, others to be removed, but most just slowly disappearing and merging with the surrounding nature.
A rustic reminder of life in Fossfjörður, in the Westfjords of Iceland. JONAA©Björn Valdimarsson
Fuel pump at Skagi in North Iceland. JONAA©Björn Valdimarsson
This ship’s long time on the shore in Patreksfjörður in the Westfjords of Iceland, has made it somewhat merge into the landscape as if it should just be there. JONAA©Björn Valdimarsson
The view through the windows of an old wheelhouse in Kollafjörður, West Iceland. JONAA©Björn Valdimarsson.
“Travelling the roads in rural Iceland takes you not just through amazing and interesting nature and landscapes, but through a part of our history. You only need to look a little closer at your surroundings and you have such interesting monuments of earlier life.
These structures may not all be ageing beautifully or romantically, but they are reminders of the people who came before us, of lives that were lived and work that was done,” says photographer Björn Valdimarsson.
“I have always been fascinated by such monuments and truly curious about them. Because they were a part of real lives, they were made for a purpose, they played roles in sustaining life in these remote places. They have untold stories of hardships and joys and there is something truly magical about that.”
“ Often these are structures that have been left to organically vanish in time, houses where the last inhabitants locked the door and left decades ago or vehicles with no more use, but situated where there were no means to move them.
Abandoned and deteriorating these things slowly merge with their surrounds them and become both a part of history and a part of nature.” ▢
A monument of how man and nature work together. Bakkakot in Lýtingsstaðahreppur, North Iceland. JONAA©Björn Valdimarsson
Skinnalón on Melrakkaslétta, North Iceland. JONAA©Björn Valdimarsson
Just like it has always been there. The remains of a truck in Fljót, North Iceland. JONAA©Björn Valdimarsson
From Flókadalur in Fljót, North Iceland. JONAA©Björn Valdimarsson
An old farmhouse in Kollafjörður on Barðaströnd, West Iceland. JONAA©Björn Valdimarsson
In Olafsfjorður, North Iceland.
In Hörgárdalur, North Iceland.
An old bus, “Route 8” in Vatnsdalur, Húnavatnssýsla, Iceland.
In Fossfjörður, West Iceland. JONAA©Björn Valdimarsson
A house with hundred years of history, Samvinnufélag Fljótamanna in Haganesvík, North Iceland.
Hinriksmýri at Árskógssandur, North Iceland. JONAA@Björn Valdimarsson
Björn Valdimarsson is a photographer living in the remote fishing town Siglufjörður in North Iceland. For years Björn has documented the community, people, daily life and ways of living in his town and the in nearby Olafsfjordur and Fljot. This remarkable documentation can be browsed in difference collections here on his website. Björn is a regular contributor to JONAA..
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