Samaya: Bridging Time and Connection
We wanted to create something small, something beautiful. Samaya is a word taken from Sanskrit, the ancient Indian language having a broad meaning far beyond a single word. In this project’s context the rich meaning of samaya should primarily transpose two factors: the common connection and the concept of time.
The crampons hit the ice. Slowly we were hiking up the glacier. Ever closer towards the Black Ice. The landscape here is honest, dramatic, realistic. This magical Black Ice, an edgeless surface of sheer unknown proportions comprised of small, individual elements assembled into a readable whole.
Iceland today is the rendering of a land and a people on the brink of irreversible change. This landscape is a symbol, so much imagined and depicted, saturated with meaning and magic. And yet it is in danger to be evermore drilled, cut, crushed by an advancing wave of industrial and human actions. The Fragile Giants are trembling. That day in Iceland I turned my face from the wind and continued.
The result of this one-week journey is a series of photographs by Klaus Fengler and Franz Walter and a short film shot and edited by Franz Walter in the moments between the photographs. Andrea Hitzemann and Björgvin Hilmarsson made it all happen in the background. Although only planned to accompany the photo series by Klaus Fengler the short film has been screened at major outdoor film festivals this year, including Banff, Kendal, Graz, St Anton and more.
