Valahnúkamöl

Valahnúkamöl is a dramatic volcanic coastal formation on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula, where dark sea stacks rise from the Atlantic beside an exposed shoreline shaped by lava, wind, and water.

In this work, the rocks remain the central theme, while the surrounding landscape is deliberately pushed into the background. The image was developed using fragments of a shipwreck found both in the sea and along the shore, allowing remnants of the wreck to enter the composition as part of the place itself. Familiar spatial cues are weakened so that the viewer can no longer easily determine the scale of what is being seen. The surface may suggest water, stone, wreckage, atmosphere, or something between them. By allowing these elements to overlap and dissolve into one another, the distinction between matter and light also becomes uncertain.

The original landscape remains present, but it no longer functions primarily as a description of a place. The rocks persist as recognizable forms within a field whose scale and material identity have become unstable, while the inclusion of shipwreck fragments adds another material memory embedded in the site. The image shifts away from landscape photography toward an abstract reconstruction of the place.