Reynisfjara is one of those places that looks almost too beautiful to be dangerous. Black sand stretches along Iceland’s south coast, basalt columns rise from the shore, and just offshore stand the Reynisdrangar sea stacks, which local legend says are trolls who tried to drag a ship to land and turned to stone when the sun came up. But the beach is also known for something far less charming: sneaker waves that can rush far up the sand without warning and pull people into the Atlantic.
Several visitors have lost their lives there, including a nine-year-old girl from Germany who was swept away by a wave in August 2025. Today, the beach has warning signs and colored lights showing how close to the water it’s safe to go. And it’s this stretch of coast that Icelandic press photographer Vilhelm Gunnarsson chose to photograph, in stark black and white.
Scroll down to see 19 of Vilhelm Gunnarsson’s photos of Iceland’s south coast, and see if you can spot the ghost of Reynisfjara.
More info: Instagram | vilhelmg.com
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Image source: vilhelmgunnarsson
Gunnarsson works as a photographer for the Icelandic news outlet Vísir and has spent years documenting his country’s most dramatic moments, from volcanic eruptions to lava swallowing the Blue Lagoon’s parking lot. One of his eruption photos was shortlisted in the 2025 Sony World Photography Awards. For this series, though, he turned his camera toward the sea. “The ocean is close to my heart, as it is to many Icelanders,” he told PetaPixel.
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His photos follow the south coast from its raw, rocky western end to the black sand beaches farther east, showing waves exploding against cliffs, spray swallowing rock formations, and people standing tiny against the water. Reynisfjara, he says, is where the ocean feels most powerful. And in one of the photos he took there, Gunnarsson sees a face in the wave.
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