JULY 2023 · ESCAPE
Reykjavik, Iceland - streets
Reykjavik, Iceland
The city kept producing things to look at. That's what walking in Reykjavik feels like — a compact place that has put art into every gap it could find, and not all of the art is trying to be noticed.
The Sun Voyager on the harbour front gets noticed. Steel, sailboat-form, facing the mountains across the water — it's on the list, it's on the postcards. It's also actually good: the scale is right for the position, the material right for the light. I photographed it from slightly up the harbour so the fishing vessels in the repair yard appeared in the frame, bringing it back to earth.
Someone made this and then moved on.
Reykjavik — July 2023
Off the main streets, the bronze figures are everywhere and small. A sculptural head, bowed, outside a yellow building. Two life-size figures mid-conversation on a residential corner, so specific in posture that they function as the missing people in a city that empties out in winter. They've been standing on that corner since before the tourist season and they'll be there after.
On Laugavegur, a monochrome mural of an assembled crowd covered an entire wall — hundreds of figures, rendered in charcoal-grey, dense and detailed. The black bins on the pavement in front of it were in frame. They stayed in the composition.
The intricate ink work that covered one corrugated metal building went unremarked by everyone walking past. Detailed charcoal fish and birds, precise lines on weathered metal. Someone made this and then moved on. The building absorbed it the same way it absorbs weather.
At the old harbour, fishing vessels were in dry dock for maintenance — hulls exposed, machinery visible, the working infrastructure of a city that was a fishing port before it was anything else. The mountains behind it in one frame, purple flowers in the foreground of another. The harbour gives you both.
A yellow corrugated building with a minimalist white hand outline covering most of one wall. Drawn once, deliberately, and then left.
Aerial view of colourful residential roofs in Reykjavik city centre with mix of white, red and blue houses
Monochrome street art mural of assembled crowd of figures with trash bins in foreground
Bronze sculptural head with bowed posture in urban setting with yellow house in background
Red corrugated metal shop front with turquoise door and red and white striped entrance steps
Two bronze life-size sculptural figures in street with colourful houses and street signage
Vibrant multi-coloured street art building facade with abstract motifs and geometric patterns
Old harbour with fishing vessels, mountain backdrop and purple flowers in foreground
Colourful mural on industrial structure surrounded by corrugated metal walls and street art
Narrow urban alley between colourful buildings with street art signs and metal gates
Modern concrete underpass with figures walking through minimalist brutalist architecture
Monochrome intricate ink drawings covering building wall with detailed figurative and pattern work
Blue stone sculpture with golden accents beside building entrance with mural and street signage
Black and white photograph of underground venue stairs with Icelandic text and atmospheric lighting
Yellow corrugated building with minimalist white hand outline mural covering wall section
Yellow and black building facade with expressive abstract hand drawing and window details
Weathered corrugated metal wall with detailed charcoal fish and bird drawing
Turquoise and pink building wall with colourful street art including floral and eye motifs
Multi-layered street art on building entrance with graffiti tags and colourful paint
Industrial shipyard with fishing vessels undergoing repair and maintenance on dry dock
Harbour basin with fishing boats, modern waterfront building and industrial equipment
Modern steel Sun Voyager sculpture with sailboat form overlooking harbour and mountains
White building with stylized black and blue eagle mural and geometric wave patterns
Monochrome street scene showing Hallgrimskirkja church tower with parked cars and pedestrians