Orri Jónsson (b. 1970, Reykjavík) is an Icelandic photographer, visual artist, and filmmaker. He earned his BFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York in 1996 and has since focused his artistic practice on exploring Icelandic landscapes, domestic spaces, and cultural memory. He is best known for Interiors, a long-term photographic project documenting abandoned farmhouses across Iceland between 1999 and 2010. These images reflect stillness, decay, and quiet beauty-spaces marked by absence and the traces of past lives.
Orri's photographs have been exhibited widely in Iceland and abroad, including at the Reykjavík Museum of Photography, Robert Morat Galerie in Hamburg, and Museum Folkwang in Germany. His work is held in public and private collections and has been featured in numerous publications. He co-directed the acclaimed documentary Grandma Lo-Fi (2011), and is a member of the experimental music duo Slowblow.
Across photography, film, and music, Orri's work explores the relationship between people and place, impermanence, and memory. His images are marked by a quiet sensitivity to light, atmosphere, and the emotional resonance of space.
Solo exhibitions:
2022 Oaxaca. Mokka, Reykjavík.
2018 48 photographs. i8 Gallery, Reykjavík.
2013 Interiors. Robert Morat Gallery, Hamburg, Germany.
2011 Interiors. Reykjavík Museum of Photography, Iceland.
2002 Eyðibýli. Gallerí Skuggi, Reykjavík.
2001 Gallery Image, Arhus, Denmark.
1999 Projector. Japis, Reykjavík
1998 Portraits. Café Mokka, Reykjavík
Selected group exhibitions:
2022 MIRA! Mengi, Reykjavík.
2016 Mengi: Berlin. Twelve silk-screened posters designed by Orri and Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir for the Mengi artspace. Felleshus, Rauchstrasse 1, Berlin.
2006 Changing Faces: Work. Nine photographs from the series Without Work. Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany.
2005 Selections from series Forsaken Farms. Gallery of the Belgrade Cultural Center, National Museum Leskovac, Belgrade, Serbia.
2004-2010 Paysages Islandais. Nineteen photographs from the series Forsaken Farms. Gallerie Fnac Saint-Lazare, Paris.
2003 Light-speed; Four contemporary Icelandic photographers. Seven Photographs from the series Marietta. Reykjavik Photography Museum.
2002 A retrospective of Icelandic Photographers. Four photographs from the series Forsaken Farms. Moskva Museum of Photography.
Books:
2022 Your Arms Are So Soft They Are Like Lamb Wool. Self published
2011 Interiors. Steidl Verlag.
