An American photographer, who waited years for the chance to capture an epic natural phenomenon on film from his new home in Iceland, was rewarded by a double whammy: an erupting volcano against the spectacular backdrop of the aurora borealis.
Preparations for the photo that would become a viral sensation began even before lava flowed.
Christopher Mathews, 60, told The Epoch Times, “In early 2020, magma began flowing deep underground in the area between the airport and the capital city of Reykjavík. This indicated there might be an eruption on its way, but it took over a year before the ground finally fractured enough for lava to break through.”
The Geldingadalir volcano eruption began in March 2021, a stone’s throw from the world-famous Blue Lagoon resort, and lasted around six months. Mathews visited 10 times to chronicle its changing shape and size.
“It was really quite awesome,” he said, “and a little bit terrifying, too!”
He took the shots of the northern lights over the volcano right after midnight on what, by chance, was his birthday. “Iceland definitely knows how to throw a party,” he said. “The ruddy glow of lava rising from the depths and the green iridescence of the aurora pouring down from the skies just remind me that we really do live in an amazing universe.”
The aurora borealis requires a combination of solar activity, clear skies, and darkness, he explained. Ahead of his first field trip to Geldingadalir, he kept track of solar activity by checking NASA websites and astronomer Dr. Tony Phillips’s blog, spaceweather.com. In the first days of the eruption, weak sun and cloud cover thwarted his chances for a decent photo.
Mathews packed up his gear—a Canon 6D Mk.1 camera with a Sigma Art 24 mm f/1.4 prime lens—and rented a small tourist cottage in the fishing village of Grindavík, a few minutes’ drive from the eruption.
Five days in, the forecast looked promising, and Mathews set out.
“Some snow squalls blew in unexpectedly, though, and you couldn’t see a thing most of the evening,” he told the newspaper. “I almost gave up and actually drove back to my cottage, but when I got out of my car I could see the clouds were beginning to break.”
Mathews drove to a spot near a small farm west of the volcano. He arrived just as the northern lights appeared and recalled feeling the “radiant heat of the lava” whenever a plume rose up out of the crater—even from almost a kilometer away.
Besides shots taken from the ground, Mathews took a number of aerial shots through the window of a charter flight with Eagle Air, a family-run, small domestic airline operating out of the Reykjavík municipal airport.
As a child, he was fascinated by the landscape photography of National Geographic. His grandfather was a park ranger at Carlsbad Caverns in southern New Mexico; his mother and uncle were featured in a number of photo essays on the caves; and when Mathews was 11, his grandfather gifted him an old Brownie Starflash camera on one of his first visits to the site.
“It was pretty basic, but it worked,” he recalled. “And the idea that I could take pictures too was really cool. I’ve been dabbling in taking pictures since.”
Living in Japan as an adult added myriad photo subjects to Mathews’s work, and he said the advent of digital photography was a “big boost,” allowing him to see images in real time and experiment with settings and composition.
He said he arrived in Iceland just after the Holuhraun volcano eruption in 2015 ended, adding that there are lots of natural wonders in Iceland but you have to be willing to leave your comfort zone to see them.
“Hiking across frozen landscapes or sharing a valley with an erupting volcano can be pretty intimidating, but can produce some epic views!” he said. “There are always risks when you’re dealing with the forces of nature.”
Mathews cautioned that budding volcano photographers should always avoid venturing into depressions in the ground, where toxic gases can gather; nor should they walk on fresh lava flows (even if they appear to be cool and solid), and should avoid positioning themselves downhill from flowing lava.
“It may be moving slowly when you first notice it, but it can pick up terrifying speed very quickly,” he warned.
A former legal professional, who now teaches American law in Europe, Mathews said he prefers to call himself as a “dedicated hobbyist” over a “professional photographer.” But not only has he sold his work, a number of his Geldingadalir volcano photos took pride of place in some very public locations.
“‘Day of the Volcano’ welcomes visitors to the Reykjavík City Museum,“ Mathews said. “‘Fire and Light #1‘ was named Photo of the Week in late March 2021 by the UN World Meteorological Organization ... but the photo that makes me smile every time I see it is ’Fire and Light #2,' which greets passengers arriving at Iceland’s international airport.”
He added, “I’d love to welcome every single person who comes to this photographers’ paradise, and in a way, now I do.”
