About Me

Fascination With the Arctic

I found my passion for photography very early on when I discovered an analog Canon SLR (the Canon AV-1) in my parent’s attic at the age of 10. Learning how to use it, caused me to be immediately fascinated by photography. Complementing that fascination, I was fortunate enough to travel with my parents to unspoiled, and sometimes distant, countries such as South Africa, Canada and Norway during my childhood. Those travels, together with the many National Geographic and BBC Earth documentaries I watched, developed my respect and admiration for nature tremendously.

In 2012, after discovering the raw beauty of the Icelandic nature through the Sígur Rós music DVD ‘Heima’, I travelled to Iceland for the first time with my local scouts group. After arriving to the country, we stepped on a bus and started our journey by hiking the Laugavegur trail. This 4-day experience in the Icelandic Highlands deeply changed something in me. This change is very difficult to describe to people who have not experienced it themselves. It was as if I no longer felt at home in my own country. As if someone turned a switch in my head causing me to realise, I was not where I was supposed to be. It took me a long time to truly understand this new feeling. In search of an explanation, I kept travelling to Iceland again and again, hoping it would help me find my place.

Jumping Into the Deep End

After about a dozen trips, I decided I had enough of travelling back and forth several times per year. I kept wondering what it would be like to build a life there. Some time in early 2015, I decided for myself I had to give it a shot and started preparing this next chapter in my life. This change in thinking came after I realised I would probably only regret that which I would not even have tried. After all, in my mind, the worst that could happen was that I would have had to return. I didn’t want to end up being that person who had to keep wondering “what if” at a later stage in life. That same year, as if it was a jigsaw falling into place, I also met the person who I am now raising a wonderful daughter with.

In early 2016, I sold all my belongings and resigned from my job as an IT technician in a law firm. Shortly after, I bought a one way ticket to Reykjavík. I stepped onto the plane with a few suitcases and began my new life in Iceland. I quickly found a job in IT for a travel agency and picked up where I left off. To this day, I haven’t regretted this drastic change in my life for one second.

Photographic Writer’s Block

At the end of 2019, I started guiding for Belgian travel agency with the idea I would start up my own company later on and continue guiding more trips. Unfortunately, in came COVID-19, which put all those plans on hold. A confluence of events caused me to lose my drive to go out and photograph. I didn’t shoot as often as I wanted and I couldn’t find the energy to continue on with the constant upkeep of my social media accounts. At the end of 2020, I felt like I was in a kind of photographic writer’s block. It prevented me from pushing forward to my goal: owning my own photography-focused business.

Eruption of Inspiration

And when I least expected it, my drive and passion for photography was reinvigorated by a series of events I had never thought possible. At the end of December 2020, I was treated to polar stratospheric clouds, which was something I had been wanting to see for ages. A month later, after carefully planning my shoot, I photographed one of the most incredible Aurora Borealis displays in years. And as the cherry on top, a few weeks later the wildest photographic rollercoaster of my life began: the eruption in Geldingadalir. All of these things combined, reinvigorated my lust for landscape photography.

Thanks to the Geldingadalir eruption, and my work surrounding it, 2021 became a milestone year in my photography career. Because of my dedication in photographing the eruption, I gained an increased interest in my work. This allowed me to finally take a big leap forward, one I dreamt of for many years. I started my own business in Iceland and became a full-time photographer and guide. At the end of 2021, I also released my first book, which is called New Earth – a Photographic Journey of the Geldingadalir Eruption.

What’s Important to Me

In my photography, I try to go by a few personal guidelines which have become increasingly important to me:

• It’s about the story. To me, photographs are strengthened by having a good story to support them. Photography is the art of capturing memories and those memories deserve to be told and shared. I try more and more to tell people that story. I try to tell them what effort goes into posting that single 4 by 5 image on Instagram for them to enjoy.
• Nature is beautiful on its own. I try to spend little time editing my photographs. I believe in trying to do as much as possible in-camera. This goes hand in hand with doing only basic processing on my photographs. I enjoy the struggle of witnessing that beautiful moment more than adjusting photographs and compositing them.
• Respecting that which I capture. I have the utmost respect for nature. I am landscape and wildlife photographer to show to people that which should be protected. I always try to convey that message to my audience and others I meet while being outside and photographing. In the age of social media, respecting nature, and telling others that message, has never been more important. No photograph or video is worth damaging nature in any way (off-roading, recovering a drone by leaving marks on very fragile soil, …).
• Gear is important but shouldn’t get in the way. The camera and lenses I use are important as they are the one thing allowing me to create my work. However, I try to stick to a minimal approach when it comes to gear. For example: I use only two lenses. I used to be that person who had every single focal length available and carried around a variety of lenses. But I found that a lot of gear only got into the way of photographing. I ended up spending a lot of time deciding what to shoot with, instead of just shooting. Limiting my available gear has only improved my photography. In addition, I’m always on the lookout for shrinking my gear: smaller lenses, smaller bodies, a more lightweight drone, …