Iceland has recently become a textbook example of sudden, almost dangerous development. It is understandable that visitors started flocking to the island once the big financial crash of 2008 had made it affordable. Tourism is now undisputedly the most important contributor to Iceland’s economy. In this scarcely industrialised country, too many want to get themselves a piece of the pie. Nature is partly being destroyed to serve the purposes of foreign investors, and the government has not fulfilled its promise of using this as an opportunity to create prosperity and good jobs.

The country’s future: It remains to be seen.

Each day offers up a rollercoaster of emotions to the traveller – the beguiling beauty of the island on the one hand, the effects of uncontrolled tourism on the other. These effects include the relentless destruction of fragile nature, as well as rising tensions between locals and tourists. It is also impossible to ignore the rural exodus, the abandoned farms, the very modest lifestyle in the island’s villages.

This daily conflict of emotions can also be found in the images of this book. The pictures, therefore, do not seek to satisfy what Klaus Honnef called the basic human need for illusion, even if the magic of Iceland and its almost unreal colours are ‘naturally’ present in the images.

I wanted to bring my impressions of Iceland together in a form that corresponds to the contradictions that I experienced. Locals and tourists should be deeply concerned about whether this bewitchingly beautiful island in the cold North Atlantic will manage to stem the onslaught of tourists and defend itself against all further forms of destruction with all its strength. Because Iceland should remain – it should remain: to be seen.