Wandering Iceland
A nomadic photography workshop
with a focus on Culture • Creativity • Camera Work
Iceland | Sep 3-12, 2027 | 10 days | $7000 | 6 seats
"Life altering. Best investment in my professional education. Just do it." -Wendy R.
"Parker doesn't just change the way you shoot, he changes the way you think. About everything". -James C.
Culture
We aren’t visiting Iceland to observe it through a bus window or to go from one overly photographed waterfall to the next. We are here to immerse ourselves in the solitude of Northern Iceland—a quieter, rugged region where the elements shape daily life. We’ll meet locals, stay at working farms, share meals, and pay attention to the stories embedded in the land and its people.
Creativity
Rather than chasing shots you have already seen, you’ll be challenged to break out of your default visual/”creative” habits, embrace unpredictability, and lean into your instincts with your curiosity set to 11. We will look at photography as an art form and a way of thinking, not just a technique or a commodity.
Camera Work
Your camera is simply the tool that translates your internal vision into a frame to share with the world. Whether you shoot digital or film, we’ll focus on intention, composition, and mastering the physical language of the medium—using light, gesture, and timing to create images that carry an emotional weight with you.
Details
For ten days, we pile into a van with our gear and a few changes of clothes, and live as visual nomads. We’ll seek out quiet villages, vast landscapes, unexpected scenes, and the people who give this island country its character. We will react to the light, the weather, and the terrain as it comes. The goal isn't just to gather random pretty pictures, but to build a genuine catalog of work and bring back a collective body of photographs along with the stories that tie them together.
This isn't the kind of workshop where we stand shoulder to shoulder with fifty other tourists, shooting the exact same waterfall. We are heading north, far past the usual tour bus routes and predictable postcard stops, to truly wander.
Every night, we’ll land in off-the-beaten-path farmhouses, lodges, and bunks rich with character. Over shared meals at the end of long days, we’ll sit around the table to talk through what we created, challenge each other's process, debate ideas, and make sense of what we are creating.
Bring your cameras, an open mind, and a willingness to get lost in the work.
This will mark my ninth journey to Iceland, and with over 50 years behind the lens, I am here to act as your sherpa for the expedition. I know these northern roads well, but more importantly, I’m there to support your individual vision as a photographer. I won't hand you my settings or tell you how to see; my job is to give you the space, guidance, and creative backing to push past your own boundaries and trust your eye and your gut.
If you are ready to leave behind the typical routine, travel light, and get lost in the wonder of it all, grab your gear and come along.
This video from my 2022 Nomadic journey through Iceland will give you a good idea of what this workshop will look like.
Investment
$7000 includes lodging, transportation during the workshop and location fees. Not included airfare to Iceland and food.
Your retainer of $2000 will reserve your space in this workshop. The balance of $5000 will be due 60 days prior to the workshop date.
This workshop will be limited to 6 participants ONLY.
Both Film and Digital are welcome.
More details . . .
Fly into KEF airport, I will pick you up at an agreed rendezvous point, the morning of the 3rd. For the next 10 days we will be exploring the culture, people and landscape.
I will be leading demonstrations in concept, play and execution in both the technical and philosophical realm. You will be learning to dream and play with your mind and camera, maybe for the first time since you were a kid! THIS is where concepts are born. The ideas that grow into a masterful photograph are what you will begin focusing on. Making a photograph, not taking it. With my belief that the camera gets in the way of the photographer and the photographer gets in the way of the artist, you will journey past your camera to discover your unique purpose for pushing the shutter button through experimenting, writing, and playing all along the way.
Sept 03, We start our journey in a 9 passenger van with a heading of N/NW
Sept 03-12, We will be out adventuring
Sept 12 We arrive back in Reykjavik late in the afternoon/ early evening, tired, dirty and full of wonder.
About the instructor:
Parker Pfister is an artist, a teacher and a mentor based out of Asheville, NC. His capacity to not only navigate and embrace any given situation, but to own it and make it speak is what distinguishes him from others. Parker has been a creative process educator for 26 years and photographing for over 50 years. His work has been widely awarded, shown and published.
For the last 10 years, two of Parkers photographs have been touring around the world for a Lucie Foundation exhibition with the likes of, Sebastiao Salgado, a prolific documentary photographer, Steve McCurry, one of the most highly regarded National Geographic photographers in the world, James Balog (chasing Ice) and so many more.
Together our photographs have reached millions, creating a visceral experience of what climate change means to us and to our homelands. This is considered one of the highest achievements in photography accolades.
I haven’t made a dime from it. And I haven’t won any awards for it. But I’ve had the chance to speak to millions , to help them feel the precious and precarious beauty of our earth.
And, it has become my mission and my passion to teach others what I taught myself:
A great photograph is more than a pretty picture.
A great photograph begs more questions than answers.
A great photograph should not only be seen but deeply felt.
A great photograph is determined by YOU and therefore a great photograph can be created by YOU.
A great photograph changes the course of history. Whether it is your history, the history of one person or the history of the world.
This is your value. This is your task. This is your time. Photography is important.
Isn’t it time to make your photographs include a part of you? Isn’t it time to find your authentic self?
I will answer for you.
YES. Yes it is.
We need you.
So, I invite you to join this workshop where Parker J Pfister will lead an expedition into your head, heart and gut in a surreal landscape with one common goal: to unlock your creative force and make imagery of your dreams.
Photos of workshops past
What past attendees are saying!
"When you know how to use the gear in your hands, but over time, the gears in your head have locked up. Parker J Pfister takes you apart piece by piece, before the workshop even begins, and rewires your brain so that the gears in your head work the gear in your hand in a whole new way!" Kim D.
"Parker reminded me that photography is an art form, not just a service I provide." -Clare B.
"I have never been to a workshop where it was not about the instructor but it was truly about me. I have never had an experience before or since quite like it. I learned to embrace me and my own path and make peace with it in a way that it began to show up in my work like never before. It was life changing and career changing. It was the best gift I could have ever given myself." -Cindy S.
"This workshop was the catalyst in our business that propelled us in a direction that separated us from the rest of the photography crowd. Rather than Parker just teaching you how he does what he does or how he shoots the details and bride and groom, he teaches you how to shoot in a way that makes it completely you, and in doing so you find your voice and your work becomes a representation of your soul. This Workshop was the best money we have ever spent on our business and is one of the biggest reason our work stands out the way it does, ultimately leading to bookings and finding the right clients for us!" -Devin R.
All Images from previous Parker J workshops