Reykjavík Museum of Photography

The exhibition is based on Stuart's master's project at Hartford College of Art in the USA and consists of large-scale prints on Japanese scroll paper, framed photographs, a series of short videos and a self-made book printed on Japanese paper and bound in the traditional way. This is the first time that the work is shown in its entirety.

The exhibition is the photographer's attempt to convey the complicated feelings he experiences in Iceland´s nature. Stuart moved to Iceland in 2007, hoping that the country would be a refuge from the environmental destruction in the wider world. As a new Icelander, he felt conflicted about the rapid changes in the Icelandic nature that have occurred since he first visited the country in 2005. 

My photographs and videos depict an imposing, fluid, natural environment and manipulated images that provoke the senses of the sublime and the uncanny. 

“I have a strong desire to preserve the nature and wilderness of the country, but I recognize my own complicity in its degradation. Though I try to tread lightly, my presence leaves footprints as well. I cannot help but venture into nature, as it is what allows me to cope with all the cruelties of the world. The wilderness reassures me that there are still places that are beyond the human experience — outside politics, environmental degradation, human misery, and joy. The absence of human influence in these spaces invokes the sublime, filling me with conflicting senses of relief, insignificance in the face of the universe, and recognition of being part of something greater than myself, greater than humankind.

Undercurrent explores the notion of the sublime in Icelandic nature and endeavours to continue in the tradition of artistic depictions of sublime landscapes, whether through British landscape painters like Richard Wilson, more recent Icelandic artists like Jóhannes Kjarval and Georg Guðni Hauksson, or in Japanese sumi-e (ink wash painting) and ukiyo-e (woodblock prints) traditions. My photographs and videos depict an imposing, fluid, natural environment and manipulated images that provoke the senses of the sublime and the uncanny. In doing so, I hope that viewers can feel some of the same awe that I feel in nature. My photographs and videos exploit disorienting scales, transient phenomena, and flash, as well as analogue and digital manipulation to heighten the drama, decontextualize the subject matter and to obscure location or identity of the subject.

Ukiyo-e translates as “pictures of the floating world.”  I view my images in a similar way: they are of the world, but they need not adhere to it literally.”

Stuart Richardson was born in 1978 in Auckland, New Zealand, raised in Connecticut, and has lived in Iceland since 2007. He earned his MFA in photography from the Hartford Art School. His work has been shown at the National Museum of Iceland, featured in The Guardian, and exhibited around the world. His photography is characterized by the attention paid to subtle details and forms in the natural environment, and his work often explores themes of environmentalism, the sublime, and transience – whether in relation to our experiences, to natural phenomena, or to how images render on film or video.

Stuart Richardson│Undercurrent

At the exhibition "Undercurrent", visitors get to know photographer Stuart Richardson's personal vision of the Icelandic landscape, where nature is a source of both sadness and hope.

Stu­art Richard­son│Un­der­cur­rent

At the exhibition "Undercurrent", visitors get to know photographer Stuart Richardson's personal vision of the Icelandic landscape, where nature is a source of both sadness and hope.

Stuart Richardson│Undercurrent