Presentation by Árni Haraldsson

Meet Photographer Árni Haraldsson on Thursday, August 27 at Fensala Hall from 3:00 - 4:00. He will be sharing a slideshow presentation of houses he has photographed over the years, including Geir’s House in Seyðisfjördur, occupied by a local character and “folk” artist, as well as some fishermen’s turf huts up near Húsavík. Having travelled extensively, he will also show other houses, further afield, such as Chekov’s house and garden in Crimea, and a Guest House in the lake country of Kerala, South India, that featured in an Indian film.

While staying at the Buttermaker’s House in Markerville, Árni will be photographing the nearby Stephan G. Stephansson House and surroundings. Part of his project is to compare the homes of these two renowned Icelandic writers. He is interested in Stephansson as a writer and as seen in juxtaposition with Gunnarsson. In other words: the houses of two renowned Icelandic writers, in particular the idea of the private house as an abode that harbours remnants or traces of lived life. 


Árni Rúnar Haraldsson - Artist Bio
Árni Rúnar Haraldsson was born in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1958, and grew up in Sauðárkrókur in Skagafjörður. He came to Canada with his family at age ten. He enrolled in the Vancouver School of Art, studying drawing and painting but ended up concentrating on large-format photography. Árni, recently retired, was an Associate Professor of Photography at Emily Carr University of Art & Design, Vancouver.

A few years ago, Árni did a residency at Skriðuklaustur, near Egilsstaðir in eastern Iceland. Skriðuklaustur is the location of a house built by the Icelandic author, Gunnar Gunnarsson, famous for having written The Good Shepherd and The Black Cliffs, among other prose. Árni’s interest in photographing Gunnarsson’s house was to consider its history and repurposing – from private residence to public cultural centre; and to also situate the house in relation to its surrounding environment, both in terms of place and time – landscape and light.