Some years ago, when I was studying in Reykjavík, we drove around the entire island in three days. It was an incredible ride — and I remember dreaming about coming back one day to photograph in all those places we passed through. That dream came true with Sarah and Lauri.
We drove more than 1,400 kilometres together over several days, without any rush. We stopped wherever we wanted and took our time to explore. Starting from Reykjavík, we headed south to Vík, passed the glacier lagoon at Jökulsárlón, wound our way through the remote eastern fjords, and continued north into landscapes that look more like the surface of Mars than anywhere on Earth. We spent our nights in Skaftarhreppur and Mývatn before looping back through Akureyri — Iceland’s Ring Road in full.
The Ring Road is one of the greatest road trips in the world, and doing it at your own pace — with no fixed schedule and no crowds — is the best way to experience Iceland. The south coast offers dramatic black sand beaches, waterfalls, and glaciers. The east is wild and empty, with narrow roads hugging the fjords. And the north around Mývatn brings volcanic craters, steaming geothermal fields, and an otherworldly stillness that’s hard to describe until you’ve been there.
I had promised to photograph Sarah and Lauri’s wedding when the time came, and Iceland perfectly matched my vision for their portraits. On the road, we had Ásgeir’s music playing through our speaker the whole way — the kind of Icelandic folk that feels like it was written for these exact landscapes. It was the perfect soundtrack to a journey none of us will forget.
