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; Saga-Sites – In the Footsteps of W.G. Collingwood (Crymogea, 2010) and Land Seen – In the Footsteps of Johannes Larsen (Crymogea, 2017). In these two projects he followed in the footsteps of two foreign artists who visited Iceland, in 1897 and 1927/1930, to illustrate in personal artworks sites mentioned in Sagas of Icelanders, written in the 13th Century. Einar Falur used their work as „a guide“ during his own long and personal journeys around Iceland, working with a large-format camera.
In the last decade Einar Falur has also worked on a long-term project about people and infrastructure in the Icelandic highlands, of which the first part was exhibited in 2018 in Reykjavik Art Museum. In 2021 he wrapped up a visual diary of 20 months, About Time, photographed in Iceland, India and Italy, which became an exhibition and a book. Now he works on a project based on the work of Iceland‘s first photographer, Sigfús Eymundsson (1837-1911).
Einar Falur‘s background lies in journalism and visual arts. Born in the town of Keflavík, he moved to Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, when he was 19 to start working full time as a photographer for Morgunblaðið, Iceland‘s main newspaper. While photographing for the paper he served another passion of his youth and studied literature at university. Having finished his studies he was to become a culture-journalist at the paper, while continuing educating himself in photography, working with some of the masters of the medium in his country.
Influenced by American photographer Mary Ellen Mark, who he had met and befriended in France in 1988, Einar Falur moved in 1992 to New York where he was to get his MFA in photography at School of Visual Arts. Later, in 1995, he was invited to take up the post of director of photography at his old newspaper in Iceland, a position he held until 2007 when he decided to concentrate on his art. He has since participated in solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries in Iceland and abroad, f.i. in Denmark, Germany, New York, Russia, Switzerland and Finland.
Einar Falur has lectured widely on the arts but mainly on photography. He taught annual workshops in Iceland with Mary Ellen Mark and later Ragnar Axelsson, and holds a part-time teaching post in The School of Photography in Reykjavik.
Work by Einar Falur is in the collection of Iceland’s main museums, f.i. the National Gallery, Reykjavík Art Museum, Akureyri Art Museum, the Art Collection of University of Iceland, Reykjanes Art Museum and Hafnarborg Culture Center.