Barflies

Barflies: Reykjavík 2 is a photography book by the Snorri Bros. portraying the regulars of iconic Reykjavik bar Kaffibarinn, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2018.

Opening its doors for the first time in 1993, the downtown Reykjavík bar was an overnight hit, attracting artists, musicians, media types, and other cool cats and creatures of the night. The crowd was young and had a huge lust for life, the atmosphere was an irresistible mixture of sweet innocence and hardcore partying. Kaffibarinn has certainly evolved and matured, but perhaps the most beautiful thing about the place is that it still attracts a similar type of clientele as it did in the early days.

As the name suggests Barflies: Reykjavík 2 is a follow-up book. Again, the people portrayed are Kaffibarinn regulars. Some of the faces from the first book will be recognized, they're just now a quarter of a century older. All of the portraits were shot on location at Kaffibarinn, and just as in the earlier book all the photos are framed in the same way: shot on the same Hasselblad camera, with the same 50mm silver lens, against the same background, and with the same lighting. The Snorri Bros. shot each subject only one time, seizing the person in front of the lens in a timeless portrait.

How did Kaffibarinn manage to develop into the ultimate endurance runner of Reykjavík's bar scene? Because it is a shapeshifter that can become what you want it to be. Its central location in the old part of Reykjavík makes it a perfect spot for a meeting over coffee or tea. For some, it is a daily pit stop for a relaxed pint or two on their way home from work. It can also be a quiet bar for early evening candle-lit encounters. At the opposite end of that spectrum, Kaffibarinn is the perfect latenight dive bar for Reykjavík's nighthawks, open until the early morning. After midnight this small and cosy bar changes into one heaving dance floor with the DJ crammed into a corner next to the bar. Those are the electric nights that have cemented Kaffibarinn's status and changed Reykjavík's nightlife forever.

The Snorri Brothers are not brothers. In fact, they were strangers when they first crossed paths at a break dance competition in 1985. Immediately recognizing in each other kindred spirits— rebellious souls searching for something more—the two teens began conjuring visions of a life unburdened by conformity and liberated by creativity: an existence defined only by the bounds of their wild imaginations. Less than a decade after their fateful first encounter, the Brothers had transformed from wide-eyed break dancing b-boys into a dynamic force pulsing across Iceland’s thriving artistic firmament. Prolific, ingenious, instinctual, relentless—they blazed a trail of originality, unlocking new vistas in the photographic realm of the country’s advertising and magazine landscapes, integrating their graffiti-break dance influences and giving birth to a visual style that was wholly unique. Galvanized by their success, they turned their sights on America. In 1995, they hitched a ride on an Icelandic container ship and set sail for New York City. Initially their aim was to do magazine photography—a goal they quickly achieved as they shot for Spin, Rolling Stone, Dazed & Confused, Interview, and many other publications, working with artists such as Green Day, The Fugees, Soundgarden, Björk, DJ Shadow, The Roots, and Michael Stipe. In their spare time, however, they pioneered the animated-still technique that would become one of the hallmarks of their motion work. And they morphed from photographers into directors, experiencing a meteoric ascent that took them into the upper echelons of the commercial and music video worlds. By the turn of the millennium, they had amassed an extraordinary portfolio, radiant with their singular vision. Ultimately they have lived to see their own creations broadcast during halftime of one of the planet’s biggest sporting events, the Super Bowl. Throughout their career, they have also channeled their energies into research and invention. The foremost example of this facet of their creative arsenal is the SnorriCam. A body rig that enables a camera to remain fixed, stabilized, and focused on a central axis while the background shifts, this groundbreaking device was first used cinematically in Darren Aronofsky’s seminal film, Pi. The signature footage enabled by the SnorriCam can now be seen all across the horizon of commercial and Hollywood filmmaking. From the chance meeting of two break dancing teens in Reykjavík to a world of wonder and creation, the Snorri Brothers have surely eclipsed the things their younger selves once dreamt about. While they split their time between New York, Los Angeles, and Berlin. More information and samples of the Snorri Bros work can be found at www.snorribros.com