A beach, but not just any beach. The beach just south of the famous Icelandic lake Jökulsárlón. From the lake flows via the river "Jökulsá á Breiðamerkursandi". At barely 1,500 metres long, it is Iceland's shortest river, but also the river with the longest name. The river's name can be translated as "the glacial river through the wide sandy landscape.
Icebergs breaking loose from the glacier tongue Breiðamerkurjökull slowly drift towards the river, where they are ceded to the North Atlantic Ocean. The ocean takes, and the ocean gives. Large chunks drift off and slowly become one with the ocean, other chunks are returned to land where they suffer the same fate.
Ice cubes, no bigger than an ice cube that would do well in a glass of whisky, to chunks several cubic metres in size. The most beautiful moments are when the ice, beach in the surf, and the waves alternately push and pull at the ice chunks, some of them more than a thousand years old.
The Breiðamerkursandi, a few kilometres from inspiration. Colloquially, this long black sand beach is also called "Diamond-Beach", although so far I have not spoken to an Icelander who is not annoyed by this name coined by tourists.
My name is Gerry van Roosmalen, photographer and author with a passion for images and stories that touch. After years in the corporate world, I followed my heart and chose photography in 2002. I completed the Fotovakschool in Apeldoorn, specialising in portrait and reportage photography.
Documentary and landscape..
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