Canadian photographer Jessica Auer has been documenting the impact of tourism on the landscapes and small communities of Iceland since 2016, when she relocated to the village of Sey\u00f0isfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur in the East Fjords. In Looking North<\/em> (2016\u200a\u2013\u200a20), she surveys the tourism boom that led the economic recovery after the country\u2019s devastating 2008 financial crisis, as she settles into quotidian life on the island. In this photographic series, which juxtaposes intimate domestic spaces against tourist destinations and infrastructures, she considers how the sparsely populated island country is commodified for sightseeing. Working from her studio in a decommissioned fish factory, she photographed cruise ships gliding past her kitchen window. With each year, more ships dock in the harbour, releasing throngs of tourists on the shore. They disembark in search of lava fields and glacial waterfalls. They watch seabirds, bathe in hot springs\u200a\u2014\u200aand take photographs. Auer\u2019s 2020 video Shore Power <\/em>documents the rituals of mass culture that transform landscapes into Instagrammable moments. She studies the cruise ship industry and the tourists who collect images that make land available for capital accumulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Auer does not simply critique tourist economies and imaginaries. Her large-format photographs and observational videos interrupt the staccato rhythm of capture that characterizes mass tourism\u2019s petrification of the world. For the self-reflexive traveller, photography is a means of cultivating a relationship with place. Auer archives the other-worldly force of the landscape in Landv\u00f6r\u00f0ur<\/em> (2019\u200a\u2013\u200a22), which presents portraits of park rangers alongside large-scale images of the fragile environments they protect. These custodians patiently teach colourfully clad visitors to listen to the land\u200a\u2014\u200ato feel it differently. Evoking wonderment, Auer shows us that it is not simply that tourists transform the land, but that the land reciprocally transforms those who encounter it. Her projects are a plea for slowness\u200a\u2014\u200afor slow travel attuned to local history, culture, and ecology. They unfold a nuanced understanding of Iceland\u2019s struggle to balance tourism with the conservation of the wild spaces on which it depends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An image theorist and independent curator, Gwynne Fulton holds a PhD in philosophy and art history from Concordia University. She is a contributor at Slought Foundation in Philadelphia. Her writing has appeared in Esse arts + opinions<\/em>, Mosaic<\/em>, In\/Visible Culture<\/em>, Dazibao editions<\/em>, and ARP Books.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\n