In the Light / Í ljósmálinu

The smoking Viking and amateur photographer Gunnar Pétursson (1928-2012) photographed with passion all his life. In his younger years, he photographed city and human life in a rather unique way where surfaces, form and movement were the dominant elements in the image surface.

Gunnar was active in the associations of amateur photographers in the middle of the last century but also joined the Icelandic Tourism Association early on. He traveled through the highlands and the untouched nature of the country, and the impartial or abstract became a guiding thread in all his nature paintings long before such became the traditional view of nature. Gunnar's works are little known to the nation, but his abstract works are today considered a major contribution to Icelandic photographic history. A collection of Gunnar's photographs from different periods of time can be found in this book.

Steinar Örn Erluson worked on a project in the research position of Kristjans Eldjárn at the National Museum of Iceland on Gunnar's work. Steinar's detailed article on Gunnar's vision, work and position in the photographic and cultural environment of his time is the subject of the book.

The book is published in conjunction with the exhibition of the same name in the National Museum of Iceland Gallery 18.01.2020 — 30.08.2020.