Top American photographers share their knowledge in Iceland

Iceland’s stunning landscapes have proven an irresistible magnet for top American photographers. I recently learned about an excellent opportunity for photography aficionados to learn from some of these master craftsman. Focus on Nature, an Icelandic company, has been very successful in attracting top American photographers to lead intense photography seminars that take advantage of Iceland’s long summer days and magnificent vistas. This week I had a chance to meet Julieanne Kost, Senior Digital Imaging Evangelist for Adobe, and Sean Duggan, an accomplished author and educator, who will be leading seminars during the summer. Other top photographers conducting seminars later in the summer include John Paul Caponigro and Seth Resnick. This is a good example of American service exports making inroads overseas.

University of Southern California supports Iceland green project

I welcomed Professor G.K. Surya Prakash and Robert Aniszfeld, Director and Managing Director of USC's Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute. Professor Prakash is one of the world's leading authorities on hydrocarbon chemistry and an inspirational leader of the movement to promote the wider use of methanol as a way to reduce our dependence on oil and gas.

The visitors have been coming to Iceland over the last few years to follow up and support the work of Iceland's Carbon Recycling International - the world's only industrial producer of methanol from carbon emissions. This is another example of cooperation between some of the world's top scientists from U.S. universities and Icelandic organizations.

Let our planet speak!

This week we welcomed Páll Ásgeir Daviðsson from Vox Naturae to hear about a wonderful project VN is working on. The organization wants to “ .. inspire a global movement pushing for action concerning the impact of climate change on water and substantially increase awareness of the issues at stake.’’ They want to accomplish this by illuminating an Icelandic glacier with green energy and use that image as the vehicle through which the glacier tells us that it is disappearing and focusing our minds on the calamitous consequences. This is an extremely creative project which I have no doubt this Icelandic organization will pull off. We look forward to working with them in the coming months.

U.S. educated interns make a splash in Iceland

During a recent visit to Carbon Recycling International (CRI), I had a chance to listen to a group of U.S. educated interns who are in Iceland for the summer. They are participating in a highly competitive program at CRI—Iceland’s pioneering firm and the first in the world to produce methanol from carbon emissions. While most of the students were from the U.S., others are from Canada, Indonesia, India, Swaziland, Germany, Hong Kong, and Iceland. They were energetic, asked some very good questions about what Embassies do, and are enjoying Iceland. If all students are like this group, our future will be in good hands.

Við Djúpið – where future virtuosos meet

The U.S. Embassy is very proud of sponsoring the Við Djúpið Music Festival, which takes place everyyear in Isafjörður. The event is a gem that brings together some of the best young musicians in the world and where young Icelandic music students have the opportunity to receive master classes from them. Mary and I had the opportunity to hear the world premiere of pieces by young American, Icelandic, and Hungarian composers performed by The Declassified – a group of talented musicians from some of the best American musical institutions: the Julliard Academy and the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Katonah Museum and the Scandinavian American Foundation directors visit Iceland

We had the pleasure of welcoming a delegation from the Katonah Museum in New York and several members of the Scandinavian American Foundation. The group, which has longstanding artistic ties with Iceland, visited Reykjavik and other parts of the country to look at some of the latest pieces of Icelandic art. Both groups are striving to strengthen ties between Iceland and the United States through art. Among our guests, we had two wonderful and accomplished Icelandic artists: Steinunn þórarinsdóttir and þórdís Alda Sigurdardóttir.

Grímsey on summer solstice and the Willard Fiske connection

We had a unique opportunity to visit Grímsey, located right on the Arctic circle, on 21 June. The island's inhabitants reflect the Icelandic pioneering and entrepreneurial spirit. They rely on fisheries to make their living in an environment that can be at once stunningly beautiful and harsh. I learned of a special connection between Grímsey and Willard Fiske, one of Iceland's earliest American friends. Fiske bequeathed Grimsey several chess sets and the school house because he learned of the island's passion for chess. Fiske, who is known as a friend and benefactor of Iceland, was a linguist and scholar who met and befriended Jón Sigurðsson in Denmark while studying there. He was keenly interested in Iceland and learned its language. Those of us who have struggled with Icelandic know it has as many variations as even the most complex chess game.