“Where the land rises” by Peter Holliday

Peter Holliday is a photographer from Scotland based in Glasgow. Little more do we get to know about him and his work on his website. But we do get to know a thing or two about the rather unknown parts of Iceland. Or did you hear of Heimaey before? Neither did we, but we do now know that it means “Home Island”, and that it is the home island of approximately 4500 people. And that it is the only amongst a fleet of 15 small islands, isolated from the Icelandic mainland by the North Atlantic Ocean, inhabited by people.
We tell you all that because Heimaey is the setting for talented Peter Holliday`s beautiful series of pictures called ‘Where the land rises’.
And where the land rises, the landscape changed in the seventies when the earth erupted after 5000 years of rest. Where the land rises, the people have a longing in their gaze. Where the land rises, houses and harbors, cars and crosses are covered in snow, and it is hard to tell the sky from the ground, because the sky too is covered in white with heavy clouds. And through the clouds the sun rises a pale blue and a distant shad of rose. Where the land rises, everything colorful seems small, and what rises, rises harsh and black and red, with scattered spots of green. Where the land rises people are caught between a landscape gone and a landscape yet to come. That is what Peter Holliday observed and shared with us to see. Where the land rises the coziest place is an armchair on a wood floor and who would doubt that.