They had their picture take on their wedding day 16th of June 2007 in park Hellisgerði in the town of Hafnarfjörður, Greater Reykjavík Area. And ever since they’ve been pictured on their wedding anniversary in exactly the same spot.
Inga Hrönn Stefánsdottir and Raggý Scheving have been married since 2007. They intended to have their wedding photos taken outdoors on the scenic Álftanes peninsula in the capital area, but stormy weather forced them opt for plan B: To have them taken in park Hellisgerði, in the nereby town of Hafnarfjörður.
“And by mere coincidence we had some photos taken the year after – in exactly the same place – when I was pregnant,” Inga recalls. “That’s how and when we got the idea of having our photos taken there annually, that is of course until there would be no one left to be photographed,” she adds with a cynical smile and laughs.
Since 2007 Inga’s and Raggý’s collection of wedding photos and anniversary photos has steadily grown and they collect all the photos into an album on Facebook for others to enjoy. Something they intend to keep on doing. And as the years have gone by Hellisgerði has become a special place for both of them. “We just love to go cycling there now that our daughter, Hjördís Huld Scheving, has a bike,” Inga tells me.
“Everything just happened so fast in our relationship. We were introduced by a friend, two years later we were married and a year later we had our daughter.”
Going back to the photos its apparent that neither she nor Raggý have changed much. However their daughter has grown – a lot. “I guess that‘s the biggest change,” Inga says with a smile. “Everything just happened so fast in our relationship. We were introduced by a friend, two years later we were married and a year later we had our daughter. We were really lucky to have met each other at a point in time when lesbians and gays had gotten the rights to get married in Iceland,” she says and adds that they’re a joyful family, focused on enjoying the moment.
Inga‘s wife Raggý is born and bred in Hafnarfjörður and has never lived anywhere else. And as folklore has it Hafnarfjörður has the biggest population of so-called ‘hidden people’, Hellisgerði believed to be the center of their habitat, I’m prone to ask whether either of them has seen or sensed anything mysterious in the park. Inga shakes her head.
“The energy is great though,” she eagerly admits. “The park may not be big, but it’s very beautiful and it gives good shelter from the wind. But actually it doesn’t matter what the weather is like, we still like to go there and do it quite often.”
Main photo taken by Harpa Hrund. The rest by family and friends.