Advent in the Highlands

The photographs were all taken during the winter of 2010–2011 in the highlands east of Mývatn in northeast Iceland, where the novella takes place. While others prepare for the holy time of Christmas, the shepherd Benedikt and his two friends are out searching for lost sheep in the mountains, to bring them through deep snow and winter blizzards to safety. Sigurjón's approach is to select 120 phrases and sentences from the novella, and then choose a location, date, and time for each photograph with relevance to the quotations. Instead of bringing us living sheep from the winter mountains Sigurjón brings us images of winter beauty frozen in time. The old shepherds' hut at Jökulsá á Fjöllum plays a prominent role in the project of Advent. It belongs to the Historic Buildings Collection of the National Museum of Iceland. In the hut there is a timber wall that divides the main floor into two rooms. During the ages travelers have recorded their names and dates of travel on this wall. It is therefore covered with hundreds of signatures. This comprises a very special archive of information. In the book there are about 120 photographs of those signatures. Þóra Hrönn Njálsdóttir is the signatures´ photographer. The book is published in Icelandic, English and German editions. Sigurjón and Þóra Hrönn are amateur photographers. The have taken photographs all over Iceland as well as in Greenland, Alaska, North America, China, the Middle East and Africa.