Howell's photos have not gone undiscovered: in 2004, the Icelandic art historian Frank Ponzi published an impressive large-size volume under the title Ísland Howells (Howell's Iceland) through his Brennholt Publishing enterprise, with Icelandic and English texts. As far as I could check, however, the book is out of print; at least, I found no way to purchase it outside of Iceland. I managed to get hold of a copy via an Icelandic museum, and obtained the original scans of Howell's glass plate negatives from Cornell University, New York. Both the scans and the book illustrations clearly show the damage done to the negatives and the dust that had gathered on them. Some specialists may find it interesting to study the dirt and the fingerprints that have accumulated on such glass plates since the start of the 20th century, but being a photographer myself, I believe that such artefacts have no place in showcasing Howell's work. After all, readers will be interested to learn what Howell saw through his lens, not what happened to his negatives during their century-long storage.

By now, I have restored a selection of ca. 50 images, and I could restore 10 or 20 more within one or two weeks. This collection would represent the best from ca. 200 photos. I would add an introduction and captions or short explanations, in English and German; a French translation can be added.

The slideshow above will give you a first impression of Howell's series; please note that the images are cropped in different ways, either horizontally or vertically, depending on the device and screen format you use. If you are interested in this project, please send me a short message through the contact form and I will follow up.