Tectonic Change

One day in 2010, his face pressed against the Plexiglass window of a commuter jet on approach to Keflavík, on the southwest coast of Iceland, photographer Chris Burkard saw rivers in a new way: as a rushing kaleidoscope of meandering channels and bright glacial sands bursting into the sea. The vibrant river deltas scrolled beneath him as if in a film, each surprising and unique. Burkard, a visual artist attuned to color and perspective, was fascinated by the otherworldly novelty of the scene. Visually, the rivers made no sense to him, seeming more like abstract paintings than nature’s work.

Later, from the open window of Haraldur Diego’s red Cessna 172, Burkard would photograph Iceland’s wild rivers from sea to source, soaring over glaciers, mountains, and canyons so deep that, he said, “Viewing them by foot would’ve been a fool’s errand.” So began a decade-long project that brought to light the existential threat facing Iceland’s waterways.