Dauðadjúpar sprungur

The work dauðadjúpar sprungur is rooted in the photographer’s heartbreak, consisting of images created in a state of mourning. Grieving the loss of her child to stillbirth, Hallgerður took walks around her Reykjavík neighborhood and into nature, bringing her camera along for solace. The black-and-white images reveal both the scenes depicted and the veil of sorrow through which the world is perceived in this raw state. Some images are multilayered and symbolic, while others are simple and direct, yet all are cloaked in a vulnerable sense of distance.

In the book’s pocket sleeve lies a letter from mother to daughter, delivered into this unique world where we hold the capacity to love people who never opened their eyes.
The title of the book comes from the poem Sofðu unga ástin mín, written for a mother of another time and place. Halla, a famous outlaw living in exile in the Icelandic highlands, sings these lines of farewell as she casts her newborn into a waterfall while fleeing from the authorities. Despite its tragic context, it remains one of the most widely sung Icelandic lullabies.

• Volume: 80 pages
• Format: 170 x 220 mm
• Printing: Duotone offset
• Silk screen printed cover
• Language/s:  English / Icelandic
• Design: Helga Dögg Studio
• Edition: 500
• Published: 2024
• ISBN: 978-91-989021-2-9
• hallgerdur.com