Vantar | Missing

The trope of the lost figure in the mountains appears in Icelandic literature from the early sagas right up to the contemporary detective fiction of Arnaldur Indriðason. The mountains and moors are made perilous by Iceland’s famously harsh and changeable weather.

Avalanches caused 198 deaths in Iceland during the twentieth century, but it was not until 1999 that avalanche defences were built around Siglufjörður, a ghost town at the northernmost tip of the island. Stóri-boli (Big bull) and Litli-boli (Little bull) wind through the mountains, a barely perceptible human intervention dividing the town’s remaining inhabitants from the wilderness.   

The Icelandic word ‘vantar’ refers both to a lost object or person and to the experience of loss. Vantar | Missing comprises a series of photographic diptychs, which record the light on mountain snow cover and bed linen.

Vantar | Missing was created during a period as artist in residence at Herhusið, Siglufjörður, Iceland in 2013.

book details

Bird Editions, 2014. Text, images and binding by Nancy Campbell. ISBN 978-0-9928091-0-2. Printed on Munken Lynx at Lavenham Press, Suffolk, UK; and bound in blue paper covers with a hand-cut shadow design.

To enquire about purchasing a copy, please email nancy@nancycampbell.co.uk