An intimate and evocative photographic portrayal of children and childhood in rural Iceland.

Iceland is known worldwide for its stunning scenery and majestic wild landscapes. When photographer Nancy Libson first visited Iceland for a hiking trip some twenty years ago, she immediately fell in love with the country and its dramatic landscape. She vowed to return again, camera in hand. Beginning in 2015, Libson did just that, revisiting Iceland for four additional summers to photograph the land and its people.

When Libson began her project, she chose to get to know Iceland’s people and natural wonders in the small towns and villages, especially in rural areas. As she experienced this remote and beautiful land, she soon noticed the unique qualities of growing up in Iceland and her emphasis shifted from people of all ages to children at home and at play. Libson noticed that Icelandic children are granted an unusual level of freedom while living securely in close-knit families and supportive communities. She was further inspired to capture Iceland’s remoteness and beauty and its impact on the children who live there.

As portrayed in Children in Iceland, Libson’s photographs provide an intimate, thought-provoking, and playful view of the lives of the children surrounded by Iceland’s natural landscape. By photographing Iceland’s children, Libson began to better understand not only the children, but through them the culture and spirit of growing up in this remarkable country. Kristín Helga Gunnarsdóttir, the well-known Icelandic children’s author, concludes the book with her heartfelt afterword, sharing her enthusiasm for the freedom that Icelandic children feel from living with and close to nature.

Nancy Libson has been taking photographs of people and place for decades. Her solo exhibitions include Small Towns and Villages of Rural Wisconsin, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and Canada at Harvard University’s Fogg Art Museum, Maine Villages at the Wisconsin State Historical Society in Madison, and Summertime Iceland: Light as a Metaphor at the House of Sweden, which was sponsored by the Embassy of Iceland in Washington, D.C. Selected group exhibits include the Photographic Center Northwest in Seattle and the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Maryland. Her photographs were included in the PhotoIreland Festival in Dublin sponsored by Cow House Studios. She was the recipient of grants in 2020 and 2021 from the (Washington) DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and her photographs of children are in the permanent collection of the Library of Congress.

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