$50,000 and 10 days later, the verdict is in: Iceland is still difficult to photograph badly. Though not for lack of trying.
Earlier this year, we reported on a novel photography contest sponsored by Icelandair: a competition to identify the worst photographer it could find, offering a free trip to Iceland and $50,000 cash. The premise was that Iceland is so beautiful that even a terrible photographer could capture its stunning landscapes, and Icelandair wanted to prove it.
It turns out the airline got a much bigger response than it anticipated, receiving 127,642 entries from 178 countries. That’s a lot of bad photographers, and to find the winner, the judges spent more than 2,000 hours screening what were, by all accounts, terrible photos. You can’t make this stuff up.
Fast forward to June, when we reported on the winner, 28-year-old Blanche Mortemard of Paris, France, who wowed the judges with her inept technical ability and lack of compositional skill.
But the story didn’t end there. Shortly thereafter, Blanche jetted off to Iceland, presumably on Icelandair, to put her – ahem – skills to the test, spending 10 days touring the island and shooting its landscapes with no filters, no retouching and no AI.
The results are in, and while Blanche isn’t likely to be named photographer of the year by *literally any other organization on the planet*, she got some nice shots – along with less-than-perfect photos. As for Iceland’s landscapes? They understood the assignment and came through, looking beautiful, even if obscured by body parts.
Reflecting on her experience, it seems that even Blanche thinks Icelandair’s marketing department was onto something. “Iceland makes it almost impossible to take a bad photo, despite my total inability to straighten the camera or take one without my thumb in shot,” she said.
And with that, the saga of one of the most interesting photo contests to cross our desks in quite some time comes to a close. Well, almost.
Blanche Mortemard
Blanche Mortemard
Blanche Mortemard
Blanche MortemardIf you find yourself inspired by Blanche’s photography – and we’re not making any judgments – and are near London, you can attend the Iceland by the World’s Worst Photographer exhibition in person at White Rabbit Studios in Shoreditch on September 11 (2 – 8pm) and 12 (1 – 9pm). What’s more, you can attend a moderated talk by the “artist” (and we think even Blanche would use that term loosely) on Saturday, September 12 at 5pm. Admission is, mercifully, free, but needs to be booked. And if London isn’t on your itinerary, Icelandair says it plans to take the exhibition to a handful of other cities in North America and Europe. Because why not?
And let’s admit it – we probably all wish it could have been us on that trip.
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