holy crap…
Ok.. I’ve known for two months that the images i created for the toyota prius campaign would eventually be made public…
but today, actually seeing my photos printed out really big displayed all over Reykjavík and nearby towns just left me feeling beyond weird:s
Here’s a snapshot i took of one of the busstops last night (theres a better photo of a different sign on my flickr page)
here are the pictures that i know have been put up, there’s one or two more i haven’t seen, but i know there were nine in all:
these are being displayed in 200 locations in all:|
In addition there are several more photos (emphasizing the car more) that will be used in different ways, plus this saturday all the photos will be displayed (printed pretty big) at the toyota dealership at this promotional thing for the Prius (and two lexus hybrid cars).
I’ll take pictures there as well.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
Absolutely incredible! Congratulations on the Prius gig and the new blog! (You will love the latter. Of course, the former isn’t too shabby either.)
October 17th, 2006 at 5:14 pm
keen to see you in switzerland at my bus stop!
this must be a great and strange feeling to see it own work oversized hanging in the streets!
well deserved rebekka! my best wishes!
Peter
October 17th, 2006 at 5:15 pm
I’ve been waiting to see what the final result would be for the campaign. Well done! I like that they gave you space to create images that didn’t all depict the car itself.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:17 pm
I don’t know how you get so much done. But congrats on your well deserved recognition. You’re like my idol for time management and always an artistic inspiration.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:21 pm
Nice nice nice!
October 17th, 2006 at 5:31 pm
unreserved and heartfelt congratulations!!! You must be chuffed with yourself, as well you should be. It’s clear you work hard at what you do and you deserve to enjoy every second of this!
Kudos also to the prius folks for doing something a little different.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:56 pm
wow! congrats. must be an amazing feeling. excellent work. best car ads ever! love the ’sweet’ tank top.
October 17th, 2006 at 6:00 pm
How awesome is this with your car promo photos! I will try to keep an eye on your blog!
October 17th, 2006 at 6:08 pm
These are amazing. Congratsy!
October 17th, 2006 at 6:18 pm
congrats! this is seriously VERY COOL… your photos have always inspired me - and i’m glad they are able to inspire others now too!
October 17th, 2006 at 6:38 pm
Oh, congratualtions! You deserve the recognition you…errrrr… deserve.
I’ll shut up now.
October 17th, 2006 at 6:59 pm
This pictures are excellent. super serie. i want a toyota now !
October 17th, 2006 at 7:03 pm
Fantastic! They look very miagc.
October 17th, 2006 at 7:08 pm
Nice photos, especially the first one.
and as i expected, it only took an annoucement on flickr and the number of visits and hits increased by a factor of 5 with an average of 61.85 hits per visit.
October 17th, 2006 at 7:13 pm
I hope Toyota is very happy with your photos — they are really good. You did a great job of working the car into your “twin” photos. You’ll become known as the “Prius” girl now. Looking forward to hearing a few rants on your blog. Cheers.
October 17th, 2006 at 7:24 pm
[…] Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir, Flickr’s most popular photographer, now has her own web site and blog. She has posted a number of the photographs that she shot for a Toyota advertising campaign, work she got on the strength of her body of work on Flickr where she is known as _rebekka. Posted by Steve Crane Filed in Photography […]
October 17th, 2006 at 8:02 pm
Your photos are amazing, it is no wonder they are getting so much attention. You have some major talent!
October 17th, 2006 at 8:10 pm
PS: Love your website. It’s very functional, everything validates, and it looks great in Internet Explorer and FireFox. Nice work Long Nguyen!
October 17th, 2006 at 8:34 pm
Wow, It would be grand if I could purchase a set of them or just one, in full size or even a smaller one , doesn’t matter. the whole set would make a great way to promote both Iceland and The Prius.
Cheers.!
October 17th, 2006 at 10:20 pm
Congrats, Rebekka. I really like these. (:
October 17th, 2006 at 11:05 pm
Weird! Somehow someone from Montreal was redirected from rebekkagudleifs.com/blog/wp-admin/ to my blog… how does *that* happen?! I can’t even access that URL. Anyways, Rebekka, it’s good to see you with a blog. You leave long enough stories on your pictures… it’s about time you had a space dedicated to words first and photos second
I look forward to reading more about your views; you seem to put things soo much more eloquently than I do!
October 18th, 2006 at 1:16 am
· Nicki: i am the someone from Montreal who got to your website from here. I check regularly to make sure everything remains all right
October 18th, 2006 at 1:48 am
Heartiest congratulations Rebekka! You’re really an inspiration to a lot of ppl
keep up the excellent work.
Hahaha! Must be absolutely surreal to see your photos featuring yourself in public.
Congratulations once again!
October 18th, 2006 at 1:49 am
Beautiful, beautiful photos, Rebekka.
October 18th, 2006 at 3:06 am
Hi,
I’ve been watching your beautiful photos on Flickr for a while now
Congratulation for your successful campaign, it’s well deserved, you are very talented.
Keep on the good work
October 18th, 2006 at 3:52 am
Congrats on the advertising campaign! Having commercial success with your work is very powerful and freeing. One of my favorite filmmakers is Errol Morris and I found out that he self-finances a lot of his work with the funds he gets from doing work for companies like Adidas and Miller Brewing. Independence is a precious thing and getting a little security promoting a good product like the Prius is very cool.
Please let us know the first time sometime points at you in the street and says “Isn’t that the Prius lady?”. Or do Icelanders have better manners than that?
October 18th, 2006 at 3:58 am
Hi Rebecca, really like your stuff…
Went to se a short film bij Marta yesterday..
http://www.montevideo.nl/nl/nieuws/detail.php?id=157&archief=ja&showjaar=2005
I think it is something you should check out…..or other people who like your work.
October 18th, 2006 at 4:00 am
sorry for messing up your layout…
You can http://www.cinema.nl/cinema/specials/magazines/news/index.jsp?portals=3142294&maps=25209957&magazines=" rel="nofollow">watch the film here.
October 18th, 2006 at 5:32 am
Congratulations on your Toyota photos and on your new blog site! Exhilarating!
October 18th, 2006 at 5:53 am
Congratulations, Rebekka! The pictures are extraordinary, as always.
It must feel great to get this kind of credit for your hard work.
On the 5th picture, the Rebekka standing near the car is floating in mid-air, or is that just an optical ilusion?
I’ll be checking out this blog regularly, to read more about the person behind Rebekka the great photographer.
October 18th, 2006 at 5:57 am
yes, im in midair , sorta floating out of the car.. the idea behind that was that people travelling around in an environmentally friendly prius have a cleaner conscience, a “load off their back” so to speak .. well, that was the explanation i gave myself in order to justify the fact that im hovering in midair like that, because i thought it would look cooler than me just stepping out or standing there next to the car;)
October 18th, 2006 at 7:01 am
Wow. What a wonderful series. What a wonderful project. And what a wonderful job you did. Congratulations!
October 18th, 2006 at 8:56 am
Congratulations Rebekka! that is so great:) your work is very inspired… best wishes!
October 18th, 2006 at 9:01 am
in addition to seeing yourself in the street being strange, you must feel a great deal of satisfaction. If you ever need anything, web, graphic or whatever, just let me know. You won’t even have to knock the door, its’ always open.
October 18th, 2006 at 9:02 am
Congrats again. Love seeing the additional photos.
I’m convinced! I’ll buy a Prius! (if I hadn’t just recently bought a (Toyota) Scion tc!)
October 18th, 2006 at 10:25 am
This is a really great series of shots, Rebekka. Really well thought out, with great continuity. The car isn’t terribly “in your face” in any of them, but there enough in most of them to notice. Plus, if they flood the city with, as it appears, minimal references to the car or company, people might be intrigued and try to figure out what’s going on. I can remember several movie campaigns that basically did the same thing, and really caught my attention.
Again, congrats on the gig and the exposure. You sure can’t complain about that, can you?
Sure would be cool to see that series appear over here. Good luck!
October 18th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
Your twin is cute!
Seriously, great photos, as ever - and what a kick to see your adverts up now. Wow! It’s so nice, following your success.
October 18th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
What fantastic opportunities you have earned! Congrats on the Prius ads - I can’t think of any other photographer that does it all, as you do. Keep going!
October 18th, 2006 at 5:30 pm
Very cool! Congrats on the Prius ads.
I love checking out your photos on the Flickr. I’m always impressed with the shots you come up with.
October 19th, 2006 at 3:57 am
Well done. The photos look AMAZING as always. Youre an inspiration in so many ways. Keep it up! ~ VJM
October 19th, 2006 at 11:43 am
Sei veramente una bella FiCozzA
Chiamami
October 19th, 2006 at 7:38 pm
I’m not really sure of the point in the toyota ad - it doesn’t even show the car that much. It’s more of a narcissistic ad for yourself.
Your photos are amazing, I can’t disagree with that.
But it would be nice if you took your self-centeredness down a few notches.
Even on your new webpage, you place your self portraits before anything else.
October 19th, 2006 at 8:53 pm
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October 20th, 2006 at 1:31 am
· Chris: I wouldn’t say that the self-portraits are put before anything else. At least, not in the self-centered way you mention. There’s more to it than that and it’s not even that because Rebekka didn’t even tell me to do it that way. When I made the website, it made sense to me to let people know whose website this is. My thought at the time of creation (and still at this time) is that I want to know which individual or organization a website belongs to. It allows to evaluate the seriousness and the interest of the information on the website and no matter how serious/interesting or not serious/interesting, there is a stronger connection between owner and visitor.
October 20th, 2006 at 4:19 am
congrats, Rebekka, really great and amazing job.
October 20th, 2006 at 5:44 am
I really like the images. Lovely tones. What does strike me as strange is the fact that the car doesn’t seem particulary prominent. Strange really. Still, what an ego boost, 200 locations. Did they give you a car too
October 21st, 2006 at 8:26 am
Til hamingju Rebekka, ég treysti mér ekki til að skrifa á ensku. Þetta eru frábærar myndir hjá þér. ég var næstum því búin að keyra á þegar ég tók eftir þeim fyst, aðlaega af því að ég var að atuhga hvort þetta væri örugglega ekki þú. Frábærar myndir
kv. Gunna Sjöfn
October 21st, 2006 at 12:51 pm
@chris: i’ve had it up to my eyeballs with people telling me i need to stop being self-centered. Just so that’s clear. Now, about this particular series of photos of which you don’t get the point, these are a small selection of all the photos i made for the campaign, used as a teaser before the others were made public, the car was deliberatlely left out for that reason. I was asked to do that. And furthermore, the idea of using me as the subject in these advertisements came from the guys at Toyota, not from me. Personally, im sick of doing clone photos, and self-portraits in general. But if im offered a substantial amount of money to create a bunch of them , that’s not something im gonna turn down. The way i see it, im through with the whole clone thing, for good, and the fact that i ultimately ended up making money off the idea is something i’m extremely satisfied with.
i think some people have this completey wrong idea about me and my photography. I’ve only been taking photos seriously for a year and a half. I started out pretty much a complete beginner and taught myself nearly all i know. Creating selfportraits has been a very good way for me to practice technique, and for a while i felt i needed to do it to get all sorts of ideas out of my head, and also just to face myself and get over being shy.
My future as an artist and photographer is something i regard with great optimism, i feel now i’ve become technically capable of doing pretty much anything when it comes to photography, and thats what i plan on doing.
You can’t expect me to have done everything already. In my oppinion, i’ve only just started, and what people have seen already is just the start of something that has yet to evolve and grow into something much bigger and better.
I do hope people realize that.
October 22nd, 2006 at 5:56 am
Rebekka, I wouldn’t even respond to such comments. If people don’t like it, they don’t have to look at your website or photography. The hatred that comes out of such comments doesn’t deserve a reply. Don’t defend yourself, and certainly don’t tell anybody but friends what you make off your work. I know it is hurtful to hear such things but they say more about themselves than they say about you.
October 22nd, 2006 at 8:09 am
i know. I normally don’t let it get to me, but i was under a great deal of stress yesterday, and that comment up there just annoyed the hell out of me..
October 22nd, 2006 at 10:12 am
Hey Rebecca, Amazing PIX, I love the atmosphere, the mood given, girl. I love in particularly the “Fairies” one (because it’s a very girlie thang, hi hi hi
KEEP IT UP!!
A fan amazed about what you do sometimes
October 22nd, 2006 at 10:15 am
I FORGOT
C:)O:)N:)G:)R:)A:)T:)U:)L:)A:)T:)I:)O:)N:)S REBECCA !!!!
October 22nd, 2006 at 3:45 pm
Hi,
You don’t me and I don’t know you, but what I really know is that your photographs are amazing and inspiring to me. Both from this blog and from your website. I will check this site regularly from now on.
Cheers,
Maciej
October 22nd, 2006 at 5:51 pm
so, now you own a Toyota Prius model… hmmm is it a good car anyway ?
October 22nd, 2006 at 10:25 pm
congratulations Rebekka - your work is beautiful and Toyota could not have picked a better photographer!
October 25th, 2006 at 3:58 am
Very nice set of pictures on your site. Beautiful point of view. Greetings from germany. Sören.
November 8th, 2006 at 11:14 pm
Congratulations. It’s been a pleasure seeing your creative career evolve, as you have earned your opportunities and made good on them.
It is a good car to promote as well — an easy client to say yes to I would think. I’ve been in two of these cars and I am very impressed by the attention to detail and the forward thinking. Good karma all around.
November 23rd, 2006 at 7:09 am
[…] Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir » Blog Archive » holy crap… […]
January 16th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
… rebekka, go ahead ! …
January 22nd, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Hæhæ
Þvílíkur innblástur sem þú ert
Það er alger snilld að kíkja á síðuna þína þegar maður er með tregðu í sköpunargáfunni ef svo má að orði komast 
Til hamingju með Toyota samninginn, frábærar myndir.
January 31st, 2007 at 7:41 am
Stunning! Amazing! Bravo!
January 31st, 2007 at 8:12 am
Awesome, man
February 6th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Ur pics are simply awesome…really superb i must say . Its a throughly high quality work. Keep Rockin’!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 20th, 2007 at 5:14 am
Hi all!
I want to all of you know, World is mine, and yoursite good
Bye
May 20th, 2007 at 11:45 am
Hi Rebekka,
Just wanted to congratulate you on your stunning photos. They make most other images you see splattered across the web look rather half-hearted…
Keep up the good work.
Joshua Hughes
Fresh Branding, UK
August 11th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
I’m not an Icelander, so I can’t speak for any other Icelanders… but don’t you feel like you’re helping Toyota sell cars based on international stereotypes of Iceland? Beautiful blonde women (most Icelanders are dark-haired)… pristine landscapes (let’s ignore the work of Alcoa for now)… and we don’t mind driving our hybrids right to edge of a crystal-clear lake either. I mean, the photos are beautiful, but it seems like Toyota took YOU for a ride this time… just another cog in the corporate, globalized, image-making machine.
August 18th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Hi Rebekka,
I think these photos, above, are all about you and your beauty, and not the car. Of course you are lovely, but this is a bit sad for me to see. I hope the other photos you took emphasize nature over the hollywood tendency to use women for advertisement. I love your work, but these photos, above, are not my favorites you have done. With much love and respect for what you have done…
-Colleen
www.cproppe.com
August 18th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Ooops…sorry Rebekka, I didn’t see the other post you left above.
I am so glad you are doing well with this work, and I really look forward to seeing the other photos for the campaign. Congratulations, by the way! This is great success. We should all be so fortunate!
-Colleen
www.cproppe.com