On his last trip to Iceland, photographer Simon Chetrit worked together with gorgeous new faces, representing a unique blend of beauty and shoot them mostly around Reykjavik, Vik, and the Westfjords regions of Iceland.

“I have visited Iceland about 6 times over the course of the last few years, and have come to know it and some people there fairly well. It’s a place I truly love, and the culture especially resonates with me. I first thought about doing the series when I looked into what other photographers had done there. The “typical” photo project visitors do, if there is such a thing, is a story on the “exotic” and “alien” elf-ridden landscapes of Iceland. Very few portraits are included, and if they are, they are usually not of Icelanders. Reykjavik itself is typically excluded, as is most anything urban and familiar. I set out specifically to do portraits in spite of this, and in doing so, I worked with the two model agencies Dottir and Eskimo. For many of the girls, it was only their first or second shoot, as Dottir has only been around since spring. For some others, they had never modeled before at all, and so it was a very new experience for us both. I really wanted to normalize portraits, and portrait work there, as I personally don’t see it that often from people who visit. Yes, the countryside is beautiful and very different, but there’s also a profound American influence, stemming from the American military base that was stationed there from the 1940s-2007, a whole city life and culture filled with incredible artists and models and creatives, and it’s sad that many people overlook it as visitors because they see the country as so “exotic.”