Reykjavík Museum of Photography

The exhibition "At Work" now on view at the Reykjavík Museum of Photography displays black and white pictures in the Construction theme with a special emphasis on photographs taken in Iceland between 1955 and 1970. Not only are the photographs of great historical value but they are taken with the higly sensitive eye of the photographer. Being a civil engineer all his life has given him access to several major construction projects notably The Hydro Electric Power Station at Búrfell, Iceland, and Findhorn Bridge in the Scottish Highlands.

Jakob Jakobsson has brought his way of looking at the world to the construction site and produced photographs that are unique. He has chosen a distinctly human angle. 

Whether photographing the figure up close or from a great distance, people and their absorption in practical tasks is a central concern. In 'Surveyors' they struggle to plant surveying poles in high winds ;In 'Joiners Building a Cement Shed' they pour over maps. In 'Canteen Staff Watching Canal Gate Opening' this official moment is viewed through the eyes of the women who have provided food for the construction workers. His compositions play with contrasting dynamics of scale ; man is often seen dwarfed by monumental structures, yet even here he holds a significant place within the overall picture. In the Icelandic photographs the landscape provides an added dimension to this play on relationships of size and scale, the vast deserts and great volcanoes echoing the monumentality of these manmade structures. 

Jakob Jakobsson│At Work

Jakob Jakobsson has been taking photographs for 50 years. He has continually pursued themes such as portraiture, landscape and what he refers to as his 'people in construction photographs'.