My photos of Reykjavik published in Rolling Stone magazine! Yey!

Rolling Stone Magazine Germany edition

It was an ordinary Friday morning in March, like every other morning. I poured cereal into my bowl, splashed in some rice milk and turned on my laptop. Then, the top of my inbox I noticed an email from a woman I had never corresponded with before.

I was suspicious.

The woman claimed to work for the Germany edition of Rolling Stone magazine and announced they were doing a feature on Reykjavik, she continued by asking whether they could use a few of the photos from my blog.

Now I was very suspicious.

Ever since I was little I remember the Rolling Stone magazine stretched across shelves of bookshops and supermarkets. Admittedly, I never bought it, however, when they released their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time I spent a long time whittling my way through it – Bob Dylan, The Smiths, Chuck Berry, The Who, Pink Floyd, Neil Young – it was a list that made getting the bus to my first part-time job somewhat bearable.

Anyway, I’m digressing.

Why would Rolling Stone magazine want to use my humble little photos?

Thousands of free photos are available for them so I felt a little perplexed as to why they wanted to use some of mine when they could use professional ones. At one point I though it might be a hoax email. It seemed more realistic to believe it was a hoax, rather than believing Rolling Stone magazine actually wanted to use one or more of my photos (I know, I know, I’m so self-deprecating, that’s why I’m writing this post to let you know I’m a published photographer :)). But really, it’s Rolling Stone magazine – why would they want to use my amateurish photographs?!

Anyway, I replied with high resolution photos and stared constantly at my inbox for days afterwards thought little of it.

A few days later I received a reply asking for my address so a copy of the magazine could be posted to me.

I was still suspicious.

A few days later it slipped through my letter box.

Only then, did I believe it was no hoax.

I wasted no time tearing open the envelop to uncover the shiny front cover. I didn’t recognise the man, Jan Delay, throwing punches on the front cover – should I? As I turned over the cover with childish anticipation I saw the photo I had taken of Reykjavik gleaming back at me in the content page.

Bird's Eye view of Reykjavik

Article on Reykjavik in Rolling Stone Magazine

I whizzed through the pages of the article to see if any more of the ones I had supplied had been included, and hurrah! I spotted another panoramic shot of Reykjavik.

It’s a shame I can’t speak German, but I’m sure the article is a riveting read (the photo of the Blue Lagoon and Björk is all the confirmation I need). If you can speak the language and happen to be in Germany now, perhaps you could let me know what you think of the article? It’s in the shops until the end of this month (April 2014).

I hope I will receive more emails like these. They are the kind of emails that make having a travel blog worthwhile. They also help validate that I am doing a few something right. Often, as I babble on about museums, the Arctic, or life in London, I feel as though my dad is might be my only reader, but I’m glad that isn’t always the case.

(Hi dad!)


For more information about Reykjavik and Iceland please take a look at my archive: http://www.theculturemap.com/category/iceland/

Have you been to Reykjavik? What do you think of it?

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Hi, I'm Shing

Welcome to The Culture Map, a place where I share my travel guides, adventurous tales, and capture the inspiring diversity of our world.

29 Responses

    1. Ahhh Kat, nice to see your gorgeous face here! (But of course it’s always better in real life!)
      Thank you, I was quite stoked about it hehe – obviously it was a fluke!

    1. Thank you Michela! It’s given me the impetus to invest a little more effort into my blog now because I enjoyed that reward very much! 🙂

  1. Well done you, very jealous and surprised the mag didn’t want to use a pic of you at the penis museum!

    1. Haha, I didn’t actually attach the photo of myself draped over a whale’s penis in high resolution! I thought it would make them question my credibility 😉 But perhaps I was wrong… I think the world needs to know more about the Penis Museum – my bad!!

  2. I don’t think there’s anything finer than featuring in Rolling Stone. Wait, maybe getting on a dark winged horse and visiting some of the above mention artists (among others) on the island they’ve been chilling on, but not even that sounds as cool as “Check out my photos in the Rolling Stone!”. I have to admit, I’m jealous as hell. Congratulations Shing! Cool name by the way, it reminds me of summer, and crazy winter fairies, entwined.

    Cheers!

  3. Congrats Shing! And the photos are beautiful so the fact that they wanted to use them shouldn’t surprise you 🙂

    1. Ahhh thanks Ola, hopefully it won’t be the last time my photos are put to similar use! 😉 (Although Reykjavik did the hard work… it’s just so damn striking from a bird’s eye view).

  4. That’s pretty fantastic.
    Same thought (“it is a bloody scam”) would have gone through my mind for sure.
    You should have asked for some money.
    Or a free life-time subscription on Rolling stone magazine….you could get fluent in German that way 🙂
    Great photos as well.
    Kickass.

    1. Haha I would like to be fluent in German… and that would be quite a novel way! However, seeing it in print was the prize in itself 🙂

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