I was thinking about places I would like to visit and photograph someday.  Iceland is one of those places, along with the Outer Hebrides and Ireland.  There are some others but those are the big three. Maybe it will happen, but if not I’ll survive. As I have mentioned elsewhere on this site I don’t get obsessed about going to exotic locations in order to find photographs to make, but there are places on this planet like Iceland that are changing rapidly for all the reasons we know.

So I was thinking about Iceland. A good friend of mine who happens to be a fine photographer once visited it and made some beautiful images. Recently my neighbor spent a week there, and I just got Michael Smith and Paula Chamlee’s beautiful two volume Iceland set … hand delivered over coffee with Paula herself!  That’s a lot of Iceland, which made me want to write about a little known and unique gem I am lucky to own … Fred Picker’s The Iceland Portfolio.

The Iceland Portfoliois just that … a portfolio of photographs made by Picker during 1974 and 1975. Originally the concept was to produce a book, but Picker’s publisher, Amphoto, decided to make a large format portfolio instead.  The result is a beautiful box containing 16 exquisite images made from the great Chip Benson’s half tone negatives and 300-line screen double impression lithography on 14×17 100 lb. stock. Between each print is protective slip-sheet. In 1976 this was state of the art, and the quality has withstood the test of time. The reproductions range from 6×8 to 11×14 in size.  Also included is a very nice introduction written by Ben Maddow. Only 1000 copies were made and each was numbered and signed by Picker. Mine is #277.

When first published, The Iceland Portfoliosold for $75.00. I think I got mine sometime in the Nineties from a used bookstore and I paid the same price. Now they fetch several hundred dollars. Perhaps enough people have gotten beyond the Picker bashing and have come to realize he could make wonderful photographs. The black and white landscapes produced from large format negatives are exquisite and well seen, suitable for framing if one wanted to do that. They were made in a time that feels so long ago. Not because I am much older now, but because both the world and we have changed so much. My guess is that much has changed in Iceland during the more than 40 years since these photographs were made.  Time doesn’t stand still and it has not treated the land and waters well in my view. One only has to look around to see that. I see it here in Bucks County where I live, just in the six years I’ve lived here. Right now there’s a fight going here in Doylestown to see if a large brightly lit 24/7 convenience store with 12 gas pumps will be what one first sees as they drive into town.

When I look atThe Iceland Portfolio I stop thinking about the monstrosity that will most certainly be built not far from where I live. I don’t think about the daily horror show that is the nightly news. Instead, I think of a better time in a different place that isn’t now. I’m reminded of the wonderful places I’ve lived or visited. It doesn’t seem like a distant memory so long ago.

There is something special and quite beautiful about The Iceland Portfolio.  Maybe one day you will be one of the lucky few that owns a copy.