I Took Pictures Of Beautiful Horses In Breathtaking Icelandic Landscapes, And Here Are 30 Of Them

That means all the 100,000 horses in Iceland today, and all their ancestors at least 1000 years back in time, have all been born and raised on this volcanic island. The Icelandic horse has adapted to the harsh climate and is without a doubt an important part of the Icelandic scenery and the local culture. The horses have played a key role in the everyday lives of Icelanders for centuries and hold a very special place in the Icelanders' hearts even in modern days.

During the years 2019, 2020, and 2021 I traveled around the country together with my own horse, as well as with horses owned by friends, and captured these beautiful horses in scenarios that look like they’re straight out of a fairytale.

I've always been creative and an aesthete. As a child I was drawing and painting in all my free time, besides the time spent at the horse stables, and in my early teens I was gifted my first digital camera. That led me to experiment with photography, eventually studying photography at the university level and making it my professional career. Because I grew up with Icelandic horses around me, it was only natural to integrate them with my photography.

When photographing horses it's extremely important that you as a photographer know horses as an animal and how they behave. It's important that you know how to read their signals and that you know their anatomy and ways of movement as well. Horses are big and sensitive animals, and the photo shoot should always be done on their terms. I grew up with horses and have been around them daily since I was a child, and I find this background to be essential when doing this work. I always have experienced horse handlers with me to the photoshoots to make sure everything goes well; this is not the type of photography you can pull off all alone, this is a team effort. The aim is always to make the photo shoot a fun and relaxed experience for everyone involved, especially the horses, and safety is always the number one priority.

In many cases, the models in my pictures are the actual owners of the horses. The bond between a horse and its human can many times grow very strong, it's one of the best things in the world when you gain a horse's trust and friendship through kindness and care. Many times I might instruct my model to "forget that the camera is here" and have them focus their attention on their horse instead. Some of the best photos are these half-candid moments.

I live in Iceland and it's been such a privilege to get to travel around this beautiful country together with our beautiful horses. The horses are born and raised in Iceland and they are very connected to their natural environment and the elements here. They do not doubt stepping into a glacier lagoon or running in front of a waterfall. Here in Iceland, we have the unique midnight sun, which means the sun never sets during the night. During the midnight sun season, we get the most beautiful natural light in the middle of the night, and some of the best photoshoots have been while exploring nature in the nighttime with my best friends and our favorite horses. My favorite photoshoot location is the mighty Skógafoss waterfalls, one of the most famous attractions of Iceland. It's a 60-meter-tall and 25-meter-wide wall of the purest Icelandic glacier water and it makes the most beautiful natural, forever-changing and unique backdrop. Not something you can achieve in a studio even if you tried. Skógafoss is usually packed with people, so some of the best memories are from the summer 2020 when Iceland was empty of tourists and we had the waterfall just for ourselves with no one else around, just us and our horses. Witnessing nature in such a raw and authentic way, without others around, was a reminder that nature is not here for us, but nature exists for nature's own reasons. Even when there are no people around, Mother Nature keeps on doing her thing. I wish we could respect nature even more, and live our lives in harmony with the surrounding beauty. With my photography, I want to showcase the beauty of nature and the beautiful horses that roam the fields of our country. Nature is art.