The sound of scrunchy snow under padded boots, the village laid-back that day, covers had fallen down from the sky overnight, winter sun rose within hours. The silver lining of Faroese winter, tailor-made for photoshoots to my mind, stunningly beautiful – and yet much more, in terms of “learning by looking closely“. A tiny island study, in a way. Because my winter village picture of Elduvík reveals some basic facts of life in the Faroe Islands. Image foreground: A dooryard, fenced, as a protection against packs of shock-headed sheep, they have been driven down from the mountains before the onset of winter, now they roam around the village. The bushes, leafless at this time of the year: they do grow on the islands, just as trees, but only in certain places (i.a. small plantations, one on the island Kunoy), and in a certain manner only, meaning that many of them represent the words “windswept“, “imbalance“ and “gone with the wind“ all year round.
Image background: the part of our village that is located close to a mountainside, Skoratindur and surroundings, colorful houses, cobbled together, it’s almost as if dice were rolling, and afterwards, they fell down from the sky, in the shape of houses. Most Faroese live in houses, not apartments, many of them tend to be spacious. Some: enormous. The old houses are small, have low ceilings and grass roofs. In medieval times, Faroese houses were farmhouses. Towards the end of the 19th century a new house-type appeared, the fisherman’s house, log-built and tarred brown or black with white painted window frames, still under a heavy grass roof, but built on top of a new house-element: a basement made of field stones, often whitewashed. Enlarge the picture. You will see one of these small old houses close to our bay. The picture below also stages our village, houses crowded together, the sea and our neighboring island Kalsoy.
More bushes. And actually trees on My Faroe Islands. A quaint grove on the island Kunoy: Viðarlundin í Kunoy