BLUE LAGOON I - Limited Edition 6 of 9 Photograph

ABOUT: Born in Iceland, Eydís S. Luna Einarsdóttir is a visual artist with a lifelong, far-ranging photographic practice. Growing up amidst Iceland’s striking visual environments, she developed a close relationship with the camera early in life. In 1990 her passion for photography brought her to the United States, where she studied at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, CA (BA, 1993). There after Eydís stayed on in the USA, spending majority of the time in California and New York City, before settling in Vancouver in 2005. ARTIST STATEMENT: Photography has been at the centre of my life and creative practice from my earliest years, having been raised in an artistic family amidst Iceland’s remarkable natural environments. What developed at first into a successful commercial photography practice became, over time, a personal artistic vision. Given my origins, I am drawn to the ocean shore when seeking stillness and repose, and my photographic work to date has explored the formal expressions of natural water in its various states: the diverse, variegated surfaces of seas and lakes, sometimes almost metallic, and the horizon’s unflinching, linear perfection. My approach is rooted in a deep understanding of light and lighting gleaned in the course of my commercial practice; as such, I relate strongly to Icelandic painter George Gudni’s approaches to atmosphere, light, and landscape, as well as to the works of Mark Rothko. More lately, what began as a search for stillness has since led to a new affinity for natural textures and forms in motion, both terrestrial and aquatic. My most recent works thus aim to portray the natural world in its essential dynamism—like the artist’s practice, a continual cycle of formation and reformation. “The act of capturing movement, creating something which is beyond our visible means is a cathartic experience for me. Simply a place of being, seeing and moving. In the end, the full potential of my movements comes to light once the "negative" is processed.”