Icelandair Discovered its ‘Actually Unhealthy Photographer’ and Gave Her $50,000

Back in March, Icelandair launched an especially uncommon picture contest. Instead of searching for essentially the most proficient, finest photographer, Icelandair needed a “really bad” one. The airline needed to point out that Iceland is so lovely that even a foul photographer may get good pictures.

In change for being publicly labeled as a horrible photographer, the profitable (or shedding) photographer would rating a 10-day journey to Iceland and $50,000. It’s a implausible prize, much better than what almost each picture competitors affords to distinctive shooters, and French “photographer” Blanche Mortemard rose to the highest of an enormous pile of 127,624 self-professed actually dangerous photographers.

Icelandair took this course of extraordinarily severely, dedicating over 2,000 hours to screening and interviews with candidates. The airline firm settled on 13 finalists late final month, and finally, Mortemard is the fortunate winner.

“It turns out there are a lot more bad photographers out there than we ever expected,” Icelandair remarked when it closed submissions on May 1.

“The search for a really bad photographer may be over, but now comes the fun part: putting Blanche’s (lack of) skills to the test on the road in Iceland,” Icelandair says. “You can follow Blanche’s journey on our social media channels this summer.”

As Mortemard’s utility reveals, what she lacks in pure photographic expertise, she greater than makes up for in spirit. Her pictures are sometimes blurry, demonstrating a scarcity of technical proficiency. But it’s their imperfection that caught the judges’ eye.

“We’re thrilled to have finally found our bad photographer,” says Gísli S. Brynjólfsson, Global Director of Marketing, Icelandair. “This project has resonated across the globe because people are tired of manufactured perfection. We really admired people’s courage to embrace authenticity over fakery — that really stuck out among all applicants. Plus, we’ve had a lot of fun viewing some truly unforgettable submissions. Blanche perfectly encapsulates what we were looking for, and we can’t wait to work with her.”

“She really is a bad photographer,” Icelandair says. “And she’s just amazing.”

That sums up the winner very nicely. Blanche Mortemard could have been topped the worst photographer from 127,624 candidates, which may very well be an actual blow to somebody’s ego, however she is genuinely ecstatic in regards to the alternative and clearly has a ardour for journey. Can Iceland itself overcome Mortemard’s utter lack of ability to seize good pictures? Icelandair believes so.

“For years, friends and family have asked why my photos always look disappointing. I’m thrilled to finally have an answer: I was training for this role,” Mortemard says. “This project celebrates imperfection — probably the only photography competition I ever stood a chance of winning.”

“The bar was low, but you somehow flew under it. Welcome aboard, Blanche!” Icelandair says.

There is little doubt that Mortemard’s $50,000 payday is essentially the most anybody has ever been paid particularly for being horrible at images.

“I’ll be documenting Iceland with the confidence of a professional photographer and the skills of someone who definitely isn’t one. If Iceland can survive being photographed by me, it can survive anything,” the profitable photographer says.

“So Iceland, here I come,” Mortemard guarantees, or maybe threatens.

---

Image credit: Icelandair, Blanche Mortemard