In early spring 2010, the Eyjafjallajökull volcano awakened from a dormancy of almost 200 years. Whilst taking photographs for our book “Iceland in all its splendour”, we were extremely lucky to arrive in Iceland two days before the second and most powerful phase of this eruption. It proved to be one of the last century’s most spectacular volcanic events.
We parked our car near the foot of the Eyjafjall mountain, but were shortly evacuated from the area as the volcano was expected to release a large amount of water from the glacier above at any moment. A police car with lights flashing, escorted us from the area to safety. The following day, we returned and saw that parts of the road had actually been washed away by the flood the night before.
It was fascinating to follow the eruption at such a close distance, seeing how it changed character from one day to the other. It wasn’t until the fourth day of the eruption when we could first glimpse the ash plume, because it was wrapped in the previous days’ clouds. On that day and the following week, spectacular lightning flashes could be observed in the column of the volcano, like the one on this image.
Location: Suðurland, Iceland
Photograph Date: 2010
Medium: Chromogenic Print
Edition: 200
Available Sizes: 70cm and 100cm
