Gallery: The Wild Beauty of Iceland's Uninhabitable Landscapes

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    Photo: Emmanuel Coupe-Kalomiris
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    Kalomiris is attracted to landscapes that are forbidding and, often, very cold.
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    Photo: Emmanuel Coupe-Kalomiris
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    The photos in Kalomiris's series are meant to defy a sense of scale, leaving only color and form to please the eye.
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    Photo: Emmanuel Coupe-Kalomiris
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    The vast variety of vistas across the island make Iceland a hotbed for landscape photography, a fact that initially dissuaded Kalomiris from shooting there. "We know the place without having been there. Which is both good and bad. In one sense it’s bad that you have preconceived ideas about how to photograph a place, because you can’t help having seen so many images that influence you."
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    Photo: Emmanuel Coupe-Kalomiris
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    Kalomiris first started thinking about visiting Iceland around 2005, but didn't get around to shooting there until 2012. He says the delay was largely due to preconceptions he had about what it meant to take photos there. "I thought to myself, ok unless I have a very particular idea of what I want to do, I’ll wait."
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    Photo: Emmanuel Coupe-Kalomiris
    05

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    One of the challenges of shooting the series was staying calm in the face of such awe-inspiringly epic landscapes.
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    Photo: Emmanuel Coupe-Kalomiris
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    "If someone doesn’t get enjoyment, then that’s it. I don’t want the analysis to come and help you or help anybody enjoy it. Either you see it and you’re lost in the abstract qualities and you enjoy it and you’re enjoying being lost and not knowing what you’re seeing or, then, maybe you’ll come back later."
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    Photo: Emmanuel Coupe-Kalomiris
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    Among the places Kalomiris hopes to shoot next are Antarctica, Siberia, and Norway.
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    Photo: Emmanuel Coupe-Kalomiris
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    Kaolimiris normally prefers to shoot from the ground, where his process is slower and more meditative.
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    Photo: Emmanuel Coupe-Kalomiris
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    He deliberately avoids roads, buildings, or other clues that would tip the viewer to the scale of the subject.
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    Photo: Emmanuel Coupe-Kalomiris
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    Iceland sits on the ridge separating two giant tectonic plates, making it highly geologically active and host to countless beautiful formations.
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    Photo: Emmanuel Coupe-Kalomiris
    11

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    "One of the pilots, he was very capable, and if I told him go down, he would just rotate the plane and shoot down and we would get really close to it. Sometimes we got too close; I’d look down and I’d say, 'hey now it’s like I’m walking, let's bring it up.'"
  • Image may contain Landscape Outdoors Nature Scenery and Rug
    Photo: Emmanuel Coupe-Kalomiris
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    For the first shoot, Kalomiris brought his wife and three-year-old child.
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