For most people, moving closer to an erupting volcano may seem crazy.
But shortly after the Icelandic volcano began releasing the thick smoke that grounded European flights for days in mid-April, photographer Jim Graham, of Centreville, found himself onboard an airplane, bound for Iceland, ready to come face to face (or face to lens) with a natural disaster of explosive proportions.
For Graham, 51, a lifelong news photographer who was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, the opportunity to shoot an erupting volcano proved too enticing to pass up.
However, by the time Graham’s plane landed on the North Atlantic island nation and he and a guide began the trek up the glacier to the volcano, it had gone dormant, he said. But they were by no means alone on their journey up the glacier.
“Iceland has a bit of a volcanic tour industry right now,” he said.
As he and his guide drove through the patches of fog and thin sunlight that shone down on the bluish glacier, they passed snowmobilers, hikers and a more unique brand of tourist, Graham said.
“These three German nationals were topless and they were posing for a picture in front of the volcano,” he said.
While he didn’t manage to get a shot of the topless Germans, Graham did take some photos of the steaming rock and visible layers of snow and ice the spent volcano had left in its wake.
Graham even gathered up a small chunk of lava to give to his godson, Sammy.
But Graham was a bit disappointed that the volcano had stopped erupting by the time he showed up with his camera.
Things didn’t stay quiet for long, however.
A few days after he arrived, Graham received a report that a second Icelandic volcano had started erupting. The Icelandic police where quick to close off the roads and weren’t letting anyone, even a photographer with press credentials, near the volcano.
But luck was on his side.
“I had somehow, very luckily, made friends with this woman who, as it turns out, was the chief of staff for this other woman who is the honorary consul,” he said. “So I wound up getting in a helicopter with them. They pulled every string they knew and we were the first helicopter cleared to fly over this bloody thing.”
There was a lot of smoke in the air and the pilot didn’t fly high enough for Graham to get the kind of pictures he had hoped for, but he still took some powerful photos of the eruption. The volcano’s acrid, brown smoke blended with wispy, white water vapor in the air, though the rumbling of the helicopter drowned out any noise from the mountain, he said.
Graham went to take gallery photos, he said, though what he ended up with were news photos and several actually ran in USA Today.
The whole experience was unique, but Graham stopped short of calling it humbling.
“When you’re in the news business, you see a lot of floods and tornadoes, but I’d never seen a volcano go,” he said. “For me, it was more interesting than awe inspiring. I think I’m more awe-inspired by acts of kindness.”
