Terra non obscura.
2025.
Terra non obscura,
Là où la nuit ne tombe pas,
The Non-Obscure Earth.
Five journeys so far, and still Iceland refuses to be grasped.
It remains an obsession, a magnetic pull untouched, a mirror in which human smallness is measured against a geological story written over millions of years.
This photographic series was born from a seven-day immersion along the 120 kilometre Laugavegur trail, deep in the Icelandic Highlands, at the very moment when the summer solstice turns night into unbroken day. Terra Non Obscura, The Non-Obscure Earth is a search for the light that never fades, and for the contrast it casts on a raw, violent, telluric land.
Crossing this untouched ground day and night, analogue photography proved to be the most fitting medium. The fragility of the pinhole camera and the singular flaws of 35mm film (double exposures, light leaks, amplified grain) echo the fleeting nature of our own presence. Here, imperfection becomes a kind of truth, the trace of a dialogue between chance and the eye.
The resulting images are enigmatic. At times they seem almost scorched by fire, lava or radiation, capturing the tension between spectacular beauty and the elemental violence that shapes this eternal landscape. These fragments of the Highlands remind us of our own fragility while bearing witness to the unrelenting presence of the world.
Each image in the Terra Non Obscura series is part of a strictly limited edition of three prints, numbered and signed by me.
Printed on rare Japanese art paper by Hervé Pain (Fotodart, Paris) and framed in solid walnut by Patrick at the Atelier Image Collée, each work is produced with the utmost care and craftsmanship, in a large 80 × 53 cm format.
These photographs are not mass-produced. They are rare, tangible presences, capturing the tension between human fragility and the timeless power of Icelandic landscapes.
For acquisition inquiries, please contact me.
