Christopher Taylor

The exhibition Presence by Christopher Taylor consists of three series of photographs spanning a 25-year period that combine to explore contrasting notions of presence within an Icelandic context. The exhibition opens at the Reykjavík Museum of Photography on Saturday 14 January at 15:00 and runs until 23 April 2023.

“I have been coming to Iceland regularly since 1983, the year Álfheiður and I married. These visits were often spent in the company of family, at their homes in Reykjavik or Eyjafjörður. Having left Iceland as a child after the divorce of her parents, Álfheiður is often nostalgic for those little domestic details we all fondly remember. Sitting at my mother-in-law’s kitchen window while contemplating the shifting light, I too became attuned to this world. I began to photograph interiors absent of people as a way to evoke such fleeting emotions.

I also made portraits; some are the inhabitants of those interior spaces. They are mostly family or friends, photographed over the years of my visits to Iceland. There are also a few farmers, the people who live closest to the land, in Þistilfjörður where Álfheiður’s paternal family came from. An area I have come to think of as home.

Then there are portraits of rocks. At every opportunity, I love to take long walks to explore new terrain, sometimes on the pretext of retracing the steps of Álfheiður’s ancestors. Rocks and water are the dominant features that accompany me on these expeditions. Once alone in the landscape, the senses hone in on each prominent feature. Such details attain memorable significance. They are sometimes remembered in names, another form of presence.“