This project was shot while attending an artist residency in Iceland in April 2019, where I created imagery that looks at the correlation between Icelandic folklore of Huldufólk ("Hidden people") and my body as a non-binary person, both visible and invisible. The self portraits were shot in the landscape with its shifting tectonic plates, heavy winds and constant state of change. Furthermore, these images explore the idea of [a] trans body as a natural body, becoming one with nature, both always in flux.


Huldufólk explores my experiences as a non-binary person in correlation with Icelandic folk tales of Huldufólk (“Hidden Folk”). The Huldufólk are the spirits of nature in Iceland: they co-exist with the landscape and are neither good or evil. They are at once feared, but also revered as protectors of nature. In creating these images, I was interested in exploring the combination of fear and high esteem Icelandic folks hold toward the Huldufólk, and how those same themes can be applied to [a] trans body. Similarly, much like a body undergoing hormonal changes, Iceland itself is always shifting; from bright sun to heavy winds in the same hour, to tectonic plates crashing against one another, economic crashes, and roads being built on hundred-year old moss fields.

Using Format