Bragi Þór Jósefs­son│Iceland Defense Force

Reykjavík Museum of Photography

The  base was established in 1951 after a defence agreement was reached between Iceland and the USA, and the Iceland Defense Force was founded.  Iceland has never had any military forces of its own. The population of the base varied, peaking at about 5,700, including military personnel and their families, as well as staff of various on-base bodies. The base was a self-sufficient world with own shops, schools, hospital, cinema, sports facilities and nightspots – as well as military installations and housing. Surrounded by a security fence, the base was a foreign world, quite different from what Icelanders were used to. 
For many years, Icelanders had to pass through the base’s security gate and this “American” town in order to leave the country, as the international air terminal was on the military base until the Leifur Eiríksson Air Terminal was built in 1987. 


Bragi Þór Jósefs­son│Iceland Defense Force 

After the Cold War came to an end around 1990, the base lost much of its strategic importance, and its operations were gradually wound down until it closed in 2006, and the US military presence came to an end after 55 years. 

At that point Bragi Þór took his photo series Iceland Defense Force, showing the abandoned US base amid Icelandic lava fields. This American ghost town had a 110-volt electrical supply (and not the Icelandic 220v), and its water supply was chlorinated according to American rules (a phenomenon unknown in Iceland, as the spring water is so pure).  Few Icelanders had any experience of life on the base, and in the photographs it is seen abandoned, and unambiguously foreign.


Few Icelanders had any experience of life on the base, and in the photographs it is seen abandoned, and unambiguously foreign.

Bragi Þór Jósefsson graduated in photography in 1987 from the Rochester Institute of Technology, USA, and has been a professional photographer ever since. He has worked extensively for periodicals in Iceland and abroad, as well as companies and public agencies. Bragi Þór has exhibited his work in one-man and group shows, and has published his own photographic books. He was one a founding member of the Icelandic Contemporary Photography Association, FÍSL, in 2007, and he has played an active role in the association’s events and exhibitions.



Bragi Þór Jósefsson│Iceland Defense Force

In 2006 the US naval air base at Keflavík closed down after more than half a century. Bragi Þór Jósefsson took these photographs on the base, after the military had departed.

Bragi Þór Jósefs­son│Iceland De­fense Force

In 2006 the US naval air base at Keflavík closed down after more than half a century. Bragi Þór Jósefsson took these photographs on the base, after the military had departed.

Bragi Þór Jósefsson│Iceland Defense Force