Raw Beauty -- Photographs From the Edge of the WorldThe Faroe Islands - a fabled place of my mind, the kind of place that always lived on the edge of my consciousness, a place of Vikings, of shipwrecks, of survival through the desolate centuries, a place of windswept and rain lashed islands in the middle of the North Atlantic. The Faroes lie beyond most individual's consciousness, occupying a nitch lost along the edge of the world - if they exist at all. When standing on the edge of a Faroe Island vista you have the distinct impression that you and you alone have discovered the edge of the world. I was unprepared for the raw beauty, the transcendent desolation and a oneness with nature. The Faroes are a place that you can only know by visiting. The Faroe Islands, rough outcroppings of stone scattered across the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic, lie like green jewels waiting for those that find them. Settled by Vikings, the Faroes were a resource starved forgotten land in the wind swept North Atlantic. Wind and rain are an essential part of the Faroes experience, historically and today. The wind scours the land free of trees, and the incessant rain assures a green land filled with waterfalls. It is no surprise then, that the islands are a place of overcast skies - so much so that on occasion I would find myself trying to work out when was the last day that I had seen the sun. Having cast the islands as a rugged, desolate, isolated place, the Islands today have friendly, helpful inhabitants who generally have an outstanding command of English, perhaps better than my own. The islands boast an excellent infrastructure, with perhaps the highest miles of road tunnels per capita than anywhere on earth. Historically in the Faroes, a trip to the other side of the island required either a direct route of a treacherous hike across the spine of the island or a longer trip around the end of the island in a wooden boat. Boats are everywhere in the Faroes, as no place in the islands are more than 3 miles from the sea. Today, however, most of the isolated villages have been connected to the outside world by tunnels bored through the mountainous island spines. There are a number of one lane tunnels that have two way traffic-which might sound dangerous and difficult, but in reality work well as there is little traffic and at the entrance to each tunnel, the traffic direction with the right of way is clearly marked. During my two weeks there, there were 2 days of relatively clear skies filled with warm sun, two days of torrential 45-50°F rain, and the remainder were days of overcast skies with occasional rains. Despite being in the middle of the North Atlantic, the Gulf Stream moderates the temperature so that much of the year the temperature is around 50°F. Today the islands are filled with wide vistas, with tiny villages wedged between the high tide mark and the foot of mountain slopes, and valleys that holds secret jewels only to be revealed to those who visit.
