Diary of a Weather Reporter #1

Look at the Sky

"In May I started producing a daily weather diary and will continue it for a year. I call it Look of the Sky – Útlit loptsins in Icelandic. With it, I continue working with a diary in my art practice and record at noon the weather wherever I happen to be. The daily record consists of three items: a photograph I take, the official meteorological report at that time and place, and finally, the weather report taken at the same time and same day but 170 years earlier, in 1852 in the town of Stykkishólmur in West-Iceland, by Iceland’s first reporter Mr. Árni Thorlacius. 

Thorlacius (1802-1891) was a merchant and for decades also recorded the weather in Stykkishólmur five times a day, on the bluff above his home where now sits the Library of Water, with a renowned art installation by Roni Horn. For this summer I am the resident artist in the Library of Water and in my diary we can see two times meet and merge, different daily weathers recorded with the science of the time. But Thorlacius had one subjective column in his daily notations, where he describes the look of the sky. And still, despite our trust in science, we weather reporters use a subjective approach to describe the look of the sky, as can be seen in my photographs in the Weather Diary."

- Einar Falur Ingólfsson

Einar Falur Ingólfsson

Einar Falur Ingólfsson (1966) is an Icelandic photographer and writer. For over a decade he has worked on several long-term projects which have been exhibited in various forms in museums in Iceland, other European countries and the US. A couple of his projects have been published in acclaimed books. In some of his projects, he has engaged in collaborations with work produced by artists and writers in the past. In 2021 he wrapped up a visual diary of 20 months, About Time, photographed in Iceland, India and Italy, which became an exhibition in BERG Contemporary gallery and a book. www.einarfalur.com

Einar Falur Ingólfsson is publishing daily photographic reports via Instagram (@dailyweatherreports) and a longer monthly report, compiling photography, video and writing, via the World Weather Network.

Commissioned by Icelandic Art Center.

Part of the weather station in Stykkishólmur, Iceland - find out more here.