Somdatta Ganguly, Ebony and ivory Live together in perfect harmony (B&W 2023)

Just as Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder had once sung, the dazzling white and the sombre black are perfectly complementing each other here at the Black Sand Beach. Reynisfjara beach in Iceland, near the picturesque town of Vik in the south coast, is home to stunning black sand. When we went there on a very windy and wet day, the place was whitewashed black. The white waves thrashed against the black sand and black pebbles adorning the beach. The sky was dramatically grey blending the two opposites. The photographs taken were naturally black and white, with very little colour in the horizon. Yet, the atmosphere was so colourful. This special black sand is ground down from black volcanic rock formed when lava cools and solidifies. The famous Katla volcano erupted centuries ago and, its molten lava when solidified, formed the black rocks and erosion of these rocks gave birth to the sand. I also came to know that the tall upright standalone black rocks were ogres according to the local folklore. We are fortunate that they are frozen! Before they come back to life, we sneaked away from that overwhelmingly beautiful place! The place was devoid of colour, yet created such vividly colourful memories!

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.