Guðmundur Ingólfsson│Kvos District 1986 & 2011 

Reykjavík Museum of Photography

Guðmundur started the project in 1986, in occasion of the bicentenary of Reykjavík, which fuelled his interest in documenting the old town – following in the footsteps of his predecessors, Sigfús Eymundsson and Magnús Ólafsson, who were documenting the district a hundred years before.

When we juxtapose his photos from two different times, we see clearly the changes that have taken place in downtown Reykjavík. We tend to think of the Kvos district as unchanging and immutable, but at a closer look that is far from the truth. Buildings have disappeared, new ones have been built, streets and landmarks have changed.  


During Guðmundur’s time in Germany he developed his visual approach, which crystallised in attaining a photograph which is a “clearly-described fact,” with clear and uncluttered forms. 

Guðmundur studied under  Otto Steinert at Folkwangschule für Gestaltung in Essen. He was in Germany from 1968 to 1971, and was for a time an assistant to Steinert, one of the pioneers of “subjective“ photography, based upon the “new objectivity” of the Bauhaus movement, influential in the 1930s and then banned as “degenerate” under the Nazis. During Guðmundur’s time in Germany he developed his visual approach, which crystallised in attaining a photograph which is a “clearly-described fact,” with clear and uncluttered forms. On his return to Iceland from Germany Guðmundur opened his own photographic studio, Ímynd.  Over the four decades which have passed since then, he has undertaken a diverse range of photographic assignments – working for advertising agencies and various institutions, along with projects in design, art, architecture and theatre. Guðmundur has always been keenly interested in documenting the impact of man and the manmade, as evidenced by the exhibition Kvosin 1986 & 2011.

From the beginning of his career, Guðmundur has exhibited his photographs both in Iceland and abroad, on both sides of the Atlantic. Examples include The Frozen Image at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis in 19818, and an exhibition at the Barbican Centre in London in 1992. His show Óðöl og Innréttingar (Edifices and Enterprises) was shown at the Reykjavík Museum of Photography in 2002. Prestigious photography journals have also published articles about Guðmundur and interviews with him.

Guðmun­dur In­gólfs­son│K­vos Dis­trict 1986 & 2011

Guðmundur Ingólfsson is one of the pillars of Icelandic photography today. The exhibition "Kvosin 1986 & 2011" consists of photographs, taken 25 years apart.

Guðmundur Ingólfsson│Kvos District 1986 & 2011