Olaf Otto Becker - Páll Stef­ánsson – RAX│Autom­atos

Reykjavík Museum of Photography

Each one has managed to create a personal imagery in this area and the idea of juxtaposing their different approaches on the subject is to portray a truthful image of the status of landscape photography today. 

Romantic vision of nature, untouched wilderness, and breathtaking scenery long dominated Icelandic landscape photography. The primary goal was to provide a glimpse of a place where beauty reigned and where changes in the landscape were dependent solely on the seasons and the turbulence of nature. However, the situation today is different. People´s view towards landscape has changed with increasing interest in the changeability of landscape. 

The title of the exhibition, Automatos, which now is on display in Reykjavík Museum of Photography, refers to a concept in Greek philosophy, and it means “that which is created from within and expands or blossoms”.  

From the standpoint of landscape, the term refers to that which is formed in — or appears in — the landscape itself. The process can be seen both in “pure” nature and in those places and processes where human activity has made an impact, such as the creation of drainage ditches in lowland areas or the construction of power stations in the highlands.   The landscape is formed and blossoms from itself, and nature creates the conditions that enable people to bend and mould the environment as they wish.  These conditions are then subject to constant change and offer inexhaustible possibilities for photographic material.  Thus it is a challenge for contemporary photographers to communicate this overlapping of the human and the natural and to find a path for it in their art.

The **Olaf Otto Becker** photographs in this exhibition are from the series entitled _Under the Nordic Light_. They have been likened to the 19th-century Romantic landscape paintings that centred on beauty and perfection. Despite the presence of beauty and a Romantic vision of nature in Becker’s photos, one can also discern in them the paradoxes and conflicts of the latter half of the 20th century, with human activity reflected by objects and structures in the landscape. Becker is quite drawn to natural transfiguration and turmoil in the landscape, and he attempts to draw forth the depth and complexity of nature’s creative power. 

**Páll Stefánsson** has worked as a photojournalist for Iceland Review / Atlantica since 1982. His distinctive photographic style has made a profound impact on other photographers, both in Iceland and abroad. Páll’s approach to Icelandic landscape is unique: he has an especially sensitive eye for the miniscule in nature, and his photographs are characterised by strong colours, intense clarity, and multiple nuances and variations of light. His uncanny ability to elicit these elements is almost magical. 

**Ragnar Axelsson (RAX)** has long been recognised as one of Iceland’s foremost photojournalists. The connection between man and nature is a major theme in his work, as the photos from his most recent project, Sheep Mountain Roundup, bear eloquent witness, with their clear illustration of the relationship between people and animals in the battle they wage with the forces of nature. For 15 years, RAX has photographed people in the North Atlantic region — in Iceland, Greenland, and the Faeroe Islands — whose traditional lifestyle is threatened by these forces. Through his black-and-white documentary photographs, he captures the atmosphere generated by these conditions in a particularly vivid and personal way. 

Olaf Otto Becker - Páll Stefánsson – RAX│Automatos (en)

The exhibition "Automatos" at The Reykjavík Museum of Photography comprises works of the well respected and established photographers Olaf Otto Becker, Páll Stefánsson and RAX.

Olaf Otto Becker - Páll Stef­ánsson – RAX│Autom­atos (en)

The exhibition "Automatos" at The Reykjavík Museum of Photography comprises works of the well respected and established photographers Olaf Otto Becker, Páll Stefánsson and RAX.

Olaf Otto Becker - Páll Stefánsson – RAX│Automatos (en)