Every surfer, irrespective of their home coast, seeks an intimate relationship with the distinctive setups that define their wave region. Whether some combination of sandbar and jetty, rock pile and headland, or a dynamic twist in the coast that might both obstruct the prevailing winds and invite imminent swell, these amalgamations of aren’t to be taken for granted. Indeed, for surfers, they’re magical formulas.
But for surf photographer Elli Thor Magnusson, the wave-rich Westfjord region of his native Iceland presents a different beast altogether. Magnusson spends his summers traversing the dynamic topography around the coast, framing up dynamic landscapes photos, while weighing swell potential among each fjord–where a considerable (and seemingly bipolar) diversity of microclimates exist.