BRAGI ÞÓR JÓSEFSSON
Odbrambene snage Islanda • Iceland Defense Force
Curated by David Pujado

American soldiers first came to Iceland in 1941, before the United States declared war on Germany and Japan, and constructed the headquarters for their military activity at a barren and desolate location in the southwest corner of the country. The base was one of hundreds of such bases that the Americans established all over the world during the Cold War. For 55 years, from 1951 until 2006, the base at Keflavik was one of the American army’s most important North Atlantic bases. However, following the end 
of the Cold War, the United States’ new foreign affairs policies made the base unnecessary and the base was abandoned.
The photographer Bragi Þór Jósefsson visited the deserted town shortly after the Americans left and just before Icelanders started to renovate it for their own needs. The buildings had fulfilled their original purposes, but it was as if they were still waiting for their former owners to return. Traces of these inhabitants had all but disappeared, and the future of the town was still undecided. It was a strange sight; An American town, complete with supermarkets, a hospital, football field and a cinema, standing and awaiting its destiny on a desolute icelandic moor.
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