Plane wreckage, Iceland by Joost Jongeneel

About "Plane wreckage, Iceland"

by Joost Jongeneel

About the artwork

In the remote wilderness of Iceland, where the air is imbued with quiet isolation, rests a forgotten symbol of human ambition. In a vertical photograph taken from the front and side, the crashed plane stands as a silent witness to an era long gone, embraced by the rugged landscape of lava fields and moss-covered ground.

The plane, an American DC-3 Dakota, made an emergency landing on the black sands of Sólheimasandur in November 1973. Conditions surrounding the landing were unfavourable, but miraculously all occupants survived the incident. However, the plane was abandoned, a lonely relic of a time when the skies above Iceland were briefly the scene of human daring and technology.

The vertical photograph reveals the weathered front and side of the plane, where once gleaming metal is now scarred by the ravages of time. Corrosion and rust have left their mark, and the contrast between the weathered plane and the surrounding nature evokes an atmosphere of desolation.

The plane wreckage, though decayed, has retained a certain mystique amid the desolate landscape. The side of the plane leans like a silent reminder of human adventures and the fragility of technological triumphs in the untamed wilderness.

The photograph invites reflection on the impermanence of human creations and the intransigence of nature. The crashed plane, surrounded by the rugged beauty of Iceland, tells a story of survival and desolation, an echo of an era now caught in the frozen history of the Icelandic landscape.