‘Even I can’t mess this up’: Behind the lens in Iceland with the ‘really bad photographer'
What happens when Iceland’s most beautiful landscapes meet the ‘world’s worst photographer’? Icelandair set Blanche Mortemard on a 10-day adventure, and here’s what her itinerary looked like.
As the old adage goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Light, shadows, depth of field and colour can all be used to capture a sense of place and tell a destination’s story. Icelandair, however, decided to turn that theory on its head.
And typically, when an airline launches a search for a new photographer, you’d expect a pristine portfolio to be part of the application. That was not the case with Blanche Mortemard, who had something rather different: a “camera roll of bad photos”, as described to Euronews Travel.
Out of 127,642 people who came forward to share their, well, lack of photographic talent in the hopes of being crowned the “world’s worst photographer”, it was Mortemard’s collection of snaps that stood out.
The carrier set out to prove that even someone with zero photography skills can take great photos of the Nordic island as part of its "Really Bad Photographer" campaign.
“This is part four of our 'Real Unreal' umbrella,” Gísli S. Brynólfsson, Icelandair's director of global marketing, told Euronews Travel, adding that since 2025, the carrier has been emphasising the country’s authenticity and realness as a destination of choice against the rise of AI-generated images and spread of misleading travel information.
“When it comes to representing Iceland in images, there simply is no need for AI.”
Real Unreal started when Icelandair shared photographs on its social media platforms of eruptions in the volcanic Reykjanes Peninsula as well as scenes from the Northern Lights.
“This sparked conversation about whether the photos were real or not, and we realised people had just stopped trusting images on the internet related to Iceland,” Brynólfsson said.
So, when it came to their latest campaign, the idea was simple: the real Iceland doesn’t need filters to impress, nor a skilled photographer either.
“We believe that Iceland is that real and that beautiful that even the worst photographer is able to take a beautiful photo in Iceland,” he added.
What made Mortemard’s portfolio stand out? Well, as you might imagine, choosing one bad photographer out of a mountain of applications was no easy task.
In Mortemard’s case, however, her “lack of talent isn’t something you can imitate”, Brynólfsson said.
Ten days in Iceland
Over the course of 10 days, Mortemard, a Paris native who until recently had never visited Iceland, took as many as 7,000 photos of the island.
“I knew what the country looked like, thanks to there being so many photos of Iceland online,” she told Euronews Travel.
“Before ever visiting, I had seen the landscapes, the glaciers, mountains and waterfalls, but I never would have believed there would be so many different landscapes all around me that I would see during such a short period of time.”
Her excursion began fresh off the plane, in Reykjanes, around 50 kilometres away from the capital, Reykjavik, as she launched her unconventional career as a bad photographer.
With her trusty camera in hand, she saw the peninsula’s lava fields, the geothermal water of the Blue Lagoon, met locals and even challenged a fellow tourist to a worst photographer battle to see who could snap a terrible picture.
After working up an appetite, she was treated to freshly baked rye bread, which reminded her of French “pain de campagne” – a rustic sourdough loaf.
The rest of her photography expedition took her to Icelandic attractions such as the picturesque Seljalandsfoss waterfall, Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon and the Hverfjall volcano.
Along the way, she also had a bingo card of challenges, which included taking an “iconic selfie”, witnessing a geyser erupt, taking a photo with a funny road sign, and seeing 20 waterfalls.
Exploring the country’s remarkable landscapes, however, didn’t shake her bad photographer crown, even an inch.
“There were lots of times where I would see the mountains and waterfalls and think, ‘even I can’t mess this up', but I’m still credible as a bad photographer,” she said.
Perusing through a sneak preview of her recent portfolio, this travel journalist did spot her finger occasionally making an appearance in the frame.
“As time went on, I did improve,” she said. “I started thinking more about what I wanted to capture and where my fingers are – in fact, most of my photos had my fingers in them,” she said, adding that there ought to be at least one award-winning snap in the bunch.
While a coveted photography award may not be in the bag just yet, what’s for certain is she is leaving the experience with her own personal favourite snaps.
“I feel the best photo of the trip was at Kerlingarfjöll,” she said, adding that the colours of the mountain range, plus her newly found composition skills, showed up so well on her camera.
“The second would be at Vestrahorn – here I think was a turning point for me,” she said.
“I managed to capture the atmosphere: the mountain had a crown of clouds and the sand was gliding across the ground. This was one of the first times I didn’t just press ‘click’, I decided the angle and what I wanted to share with everyone through my picture.”
Not only does she leave the experience with new-found photography skills, Mortemard said she’s now a different traveller, too.
After her road trip through Iceland, where she got to see and experience different things in one trip, she sees herself doing that in the future: “I’ll think more about road tripping, rather than just staying in one place for too long.”
If, like this travel journalist, you’re eager to see the final product of Mortemard’s unique style of photography and meet her in person, her photos will be gracing the walls of London’s White Rabbit Studios from 11-12 September. There are also future plans to showcase her talents across other cities in Europe and North America.
Exploring Iceland with the ‘really bad photographer’
Where Blanche Mortemard went
- Reykjanes Peninsula, southwest Iceland
- Gígjagjá cave (otherwise known as the “Yoda Cave”), in Hjörleifshöfði. Mortemard was especially fascinated by the black sands
- Stuðlagil canyon, in Jokuldalur Valley
- Hverfjall, in Mývatn where Mortemard went hiking
- Önundarfjörður Pier in the Westfjords A full map of where her Icelandic travels took her can be found here.
New foods she liked (and perhaps didn’t like so much)
- Rúgbrauð: Icelandic rye bread
- Kjötsúpa: Icelandic hearty lamb stew and Mortemard’s personal favourite from the trip
- Hákarl: A fermented shark dish, which, according to Mortemard, is “nice to try… but only once”.
- Plokkfiskur: Fish stew made with a béchamel sauce and potatoes
- Pönnukaka: Thin pancakes
