Ólafur is a freelance Icelandic-Danish photojournalist based in Copenhagen.
His work has appeared in all the major Danish newspapers and a variety of international media outlets. As part of his studies at the Danish School of Media and Journalism, he undertook an 18-month internship at Berlingske and Scanpix. He has reported from countries including Ghana, Lebanon and Iraq, although he has primarily focused on the post-Soviet states. He has published two books on the region alongside two colleagues. The first, Russerne kommer, received the prestigious Kristian Dahl Memorial Grant (Kristian Dahls Mindelegat) for excellence in journalism.
In 2022, Ólafur was named a National Geographic Explorer in recognition of his work documenting the lives of North Atlantic whalers — a project that took him to Greenland, the Barents Sea and the Faroe Islands. He has also received multiple honours at the Danish Photojournalism Awards.
