§ Workshop — Intermediate
ICE, SKIN AND LAVA
Keflavík, Iceland
Departs · 19 February 2027 · 8 days
Participants · 6 · Spots remaining 6
Three adult models enter Iceland’s elemental landscapes, where skin meets glacier, lava, black earth and the volatile light of the North Atlantic.
Iceland is a landscape still visibly becoming. Lava hardens beside the ocean; glaciers carry ancient time towards black beaches; steam rises from fissures beneath a sky that can change its character in minutes. Nothing here behaves like a neutral background.
Three adult models will accompany the workshop. Their presence is conceived as a human counterpoint to the elements: skin against ice, gesture against wind, warmth set within mineral distance. The body is never used to decorate the landscape. It enters the image as measure, vulnerability and resistance.
We will work across volcanic ground, winter coast, geothermal territories and the margins of the glacier. Each location demands another visual language. Black sand reduces the frame to tone and movement; lava asks for texture and scale; ice receives and fractures light; water and steam make the atmosphere itself visible.
This is a workshop in directed fine-art photography, but direction will remain attentive to the conditions. Pose, clothing, exposure and working time must respond to temperature, wind and the physical limits of the models. The image is important; the welfare of every person involved is more important.
Natural light will be joined, when useful, by restrained portable lighting. The aim is not to overpower Iceland, but to reveal the precise instant when body and element briefly occupy the same emotional space.
The final work should not resemble a fashion campaign transported north. It should feel as though the images could only have been made here: in a country where earth, water, air and fire remain unfinished sentences.
§ The Itinerary
The Itinerary
§ Phase 01
ARRIVAL · THE NORTH ATLANTIC
Entering the Weather
Arrival, introductions and the first visual briefing. A short coastal session, when conditions allow, establishes the working language between the three models, the Atlantic light and volcanic ground.
§ Phase 02
REYKJANES
Lava, Steam and the Human Figure
A day across the Reykjanes Peninsula, following geothermal atmosphere, lava fields and the edge of the ocean. Direction concentrates on scale, movement and the changing visibility created by wind and steam.
§ Phase 03
THE SOUTH COAST
Water in Motion
Work around waterfalls and the southern landscape, using spray, dark rock and low winter light. The group studies how shutter speed, distance and gesture can transform water from subject into emotional structure.
§ Phase 04
BLACK EARTH
The Body Before the Sea
A carefully managed session on or near the black coast, subject to safe access and wave conditions. Fabric, skin and silhouette are composed against basalt, sand and the volatile horizon.
§ Phase 05
ICE
Light Held Inside the Glacier
The glacier chapter is developed with authorised local guidance and according to current access. Ice, reflected colour and human presence are photographed through restraint, with exposure time and model welfare determining every decision.
§ Phase 06
THE FINAL ELEMENT
Sequence, Return and Edit
A final field session follows the strongest available weather, then the workshop turns towards the collective edit. Each participant builds a sequence in which lava, ice, water, wind and the body form one visual argument.
§ Photo Gear
Photo Gear
Bring your own way of seeing.
Everyone will tell you what to bring. This is better than that. That other thing is essential. In photography, what goes into someone else’s bag always seems to be everybody’s business.
I would start with you: what you want to say, the images you are looking for, the tools you feel at home with. Heavy equipment tires you out. A slower process takes time. Yet a view camera may give you precisely the image you imagined; a collodion portrait may reward all that preparation with the wonder of the person receiving it. For me, that is worth something.
If your photographic journey revolves around unusual or demanding equipment, talk to us. Tell us what you want to make before deciding that travelling with us could never work for you.
Essential Requirements
Tripod
A sturdy, portable tripod is essential for dawn, sunset, night photography and carefully constructed compositions. Carbon fibre is particularly suitable because it combines stability with lower weight.
Ziplock
Last but not least, two of photography’s greatest secrets: Ziplock & Bongo Ties. Simple resealable food bags to help keep dust and moisture away from your equipment, and elastic ties with a small wooden toggle to secure cables, covers and all those little things that refuse to stay put.
Protecting individual pieces of equipment—preferably with two bags—is a light, practical defence when wind carries sand into every opening.
What we bring for you
There are a few wonders in our bags for you, too. Medium format cameras — yes, including the splendid HASSELBLAD X2D II 100C — to pick up and use. We travel with COLORCHECKER, a complete set of LEE Filters and a matte box, SEKONIC meters and PocketWizard triggers. When the project calls for them, we add PROFOTO and BRONCOLO flash, ARRI continuous lighting, MATTHEWS grip and SUNBOUNCE systems for shaping natural light. Tools that make you want to try again, and see what happens when light finally takes the shape you had in mind.
And then there is Luca, your guide: a true fine art photographer — read: a rather unusual photographer. Do not be surprised if view cameras, ultra-panoramic film cameras and other delightful oddities emerge from his bags. Shh… they are part of the experience, too.
Need a backup camera, a particular lens, a tripod, a head or a monopod? Tell us before departure so we can plan what to bring. Our enthusiasm is considerable. Our carrying capacity has its limits.
Bring your own way of seeing, and we will shape the journey to make room for it.
§ Personal Gear
Personal Gear
Over the years, we have developed a welcome package to make your stay as comfortable as possible and help you make the most of your experience. It brings together a thoughtful selection of essentials—things that are easily forgotten or can be difficult to arrange from abroad.
We begin with one of the most important: staying connected.
Your welcome package includes:
Everything is packed in a protective, waterproof expedition dry bag, ready to accompany you throughout the experience.
§ Travel Conditions
Travel Conditions
Iceland is internationally accessible through Keflavík Airport, where the group journey begins. Participants will receive the exact meeting point and transfer arrangements before departure. If your arrival falls outside the principal collection window, we will help you identify the most practical way to join the group.
The workshop travels by comfortable private vehicle, using routes selected according to weather, winter road conditions and safe access. The published itinerary describes the intended photographic chapters rather than an inflexible sequence; Iceland may require locations or timings to change at short notice.
No long hikes are planned, but several locations involve short approaches over snow, ice, black sand or uneven volcanic ground. Local guides and specialist operators will be used wherever glacier access or other controlled environments require them.
Strong wind, rain, sleet, snow and rapidly changing visibility are normal possibilities. The welfare of the three models determines the duration and form of every outdoor session. Warm-up periods, protective clothing between frames and alternative interior work are built into the production method.
Aurora, snow cover, clear skies and access to ice formations can never be guaranteed. The workshop follows the conditions that actually exist, treating weather not as a failed plan but as one of the principal authors of the image.
§ Accommodation
Accommodation
The Arrival · Keflavík
The arrival night is offered by London Photographic Workshop, allowing the group to meet close to the international airport before the photographic journey begins. A welcome dinner is also offered that evening: the first shared table and the practical opening of the week.
A Moving Base
The accommodation plan will follow the geography of the workshop rather than require the group to return to one distant hotel every night. Carefully selected bases in the south-west and along the southern route will reduce unnecessary driving and protect the hours of best light.
Warmth as Part of the Method
In winter Iceland, accommodation is not merely where the day ends. It provides drying space, reliable heating, equipment charging and a protected interval in which models and photographers can recover between demanding exterior sessions.
The Table
Breakfast will normally be taken at the accommodation. Lunches may be carried or arranged along the route according to the working day; dinners will favour warm, locally grounded places close to each base.
The Final Night
The additional night following the final working day is offered by London Photographic Workshop, allowing the group to complete the edit and depart without compressing the farewell into the last field session. Final properties and the room plan will be communicated once the winter route and operational partners are confirmed.
§ Safety & Accessibility
Safety & Accessibility
In Iceland, we follow the light with the comfort of a thoughtfully planned journey. We will travel in VIP vans, such as high-specification Mercedes Sprinters or Vito, aiming to get as close as possible to our photographic locations where permitted access and conditions allow: less distance with equipment on our shoulders, more time to observe and photograph. No long hikes are planned.
A few less readily accessible locations may involve short walks, from around thirty minutes to a planned maximum of one hour, along routes selected to be mostly level or gently sloping. Natural ground can still be uneven or slippery, so suitable footwear and protection from wind and rain are recommended. Access and routes will be assessed according to the weather and conditions at the time.
If you have specific mobility needs,
speak to us before booking so that we can review the itinerary together.
§ Post-Workshop
Post-Workshop
After leaving Iceland, where skin met glacier, lava and black earth beneath North Atlantic light, the images ask to return to those who held that elemental encounter together.
I did not include six months of post-workshop contact by chance, nor as a simple service.
Many years ago, I was teaching an online course that could easily have felt impersonal. Instead, when it ended, the group did not want to dissolve. We had never all sat around the same table, yet years later we are still a living community. From that experience came conversations, magazines, books, friendships and shared ways of looking.
It taught me how valuable a small circle of people can be when they have lived and worked through an experience together.
For this reason, every workshop includes six months of continued contact at no additional cost: a private group, image sharing, feedback, and a form of ongoing tuition shaped by cultural prompts — a book, an image, a thought, an exhibition, or an occasion that may open a new direction in the work.
The event ends. The adventure in photography begins.
§ The Light Map
The Light Map
19–26 February 2027. At Keflavík and across south-west Iceland, sunrise advances from approximately 09:13 to 08:49 and sunset extends from approximately 18:17 to 18:39. In a single week, the visible day grows by almost an hour.
The low winter sun remains close to the horizon for much of its passage. It draws long shadows across lava, snow and black earth, producing a light that can feel like an extended dawn followed by an extended dusk. Blue hour is not a brief afterthought here; it is one of the central materials of the workshop.
The moon approaches full during the opening days, reaches fullness around 21 February and then begins to wane. Its light can clarify snow, glacier and cloud from within, while the darker intervals remain suitable for aurora work if solar and atmospheric conditions cooperate. The aurora can never be guaranteed.
Late February is still winter. Temperatures commonly hover around -2 to 4°C near the coast, but strong Atlantic wind can make conditions feel substantially colder. Rain, sleet, snow, rapid cloud movement and sudden changes in visibility must all be expected.
Wind is not merely a difficulty; it reveals scale and movement. It drives spindrift across the ground, opens and closes the landscape, and can turn a stable scene into something volatile within minutes. Safety and access will always take precedence over the planned image.
This Light Map is built around transition: darkness yielding to a longer day, ice receiving moonlight, and the human figure meeting a landscape that never holds the same weather for long.