Roads Less Travelled: Andy Lee’s Dark Roads in Iceland and the UK

“There was nowhere to go but everywhere.” Andy Lee opens his series Roads Less Travelled with that line from Jack Kerouac, and the photographs live up to it: dark, empty roads running under twisted trees, across snowfields and into storm-heavy mountain valleys, each one inviting you to follow it around the next bend.

Blue-toned road beneath an arch of interlocking bare trees, photographed by Andy Lee — A dark road beneath an arching canopy of bare branches in Andy Lee’s cool-toned photograph. Gallery attribution: Andy Lee.

The English fine-art photographer made the pictures on separate journeys through Iceland, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland, and published them together as one moody, cold-toned set.

Andy Lee, fine-art landscape photographer

Lee describes himself as a father of two, creative director, filmmaker, “obsessive photographer”, painter and doodler. He works across large-format 5×4 film, medium format, digital and infrared, and his best-known projects include Blue Iceland, an infrared series made with a DSLR converted to record 720 nm infrared light, and Patagonia Dreaming, his photographs from the far south of South America. His website groups the work into galleries such as Iceland, Iceland mono, Blue Iceland, Patagonia Dreaming and Roads Less Travelled.

Animals crossing a road below a snowy mountain, photographed by Andy Lee — A road leading toward pale mountains with roadside poles and small animals in the distance. Gallery attribution: Andy Lee.

Monochrome road receding beneath dark clouds into open mountain country — A straight road disappearing beneath a dramatic dark sky in Andy Lee’s monochrome image. Gallery attribution: Andy Lee.

Monochrome road leading towards snow-covered peaks under a heavy sky

Dark roads in Iceland, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland

The four places share one thing Lee clearly loves: weather. Across the series you find snow-covered slopes and mountains rising straight from the tarmac, valleys under low storm cloud and lanes where old trees meet overhead to turn a road into a tunnel of branches.

The series moves between those moods. One photograph encloses the viewer beneath interlocking bare trees; another opens towards pale mountains, with roadside poles and grazing animals marking the distance; a third gives most of the frame to a dark, dramatic sky. In every case the road is the constant, a single human-made line in a landscape that feels much bigger than the people who built it.

Road between dark mountains beneath blue-toned storm clouds

Straight road through a tunnel of bare trees in black and white

Dark road curving into an almost entirely white snowy mountain landscape

Cool tones, infrared and black and white

Lee’s colour palette is deliberately cold. Several frames are toned blue, others are pure black and white, and the results feel closer to a film still than a holiday snapshot. His infrared work explains part of the look: an infrared-converted camera records light just beyond what the eye can see, and foliage reflects so much of it that green trees and grass turn pale and glowing, while skies go dark and dramatic.

Monochrome does something similar with simpler tools. Without colour, a scene becomes light, shadow and line, and the pale ribbon of a road through dark ground becomes the strongest element in the frame.

Road entering a steep shadowed valley beneath low clouds

Narrow road beneath the twisting branches of mature trees

Road running into an open valley beneath a single bright cloud in black and white

Blue-toned road curving along a snow-covered mountain slope

How to photograph a road as a leading line

A road is one of the most powerful leading lines in landscape photography. It starts in the foreground, where the viewer can imagine standing, and carries the eye to whatever lies at the far end: a mountain, a gap in the trees or simply the horizon.

Stop safely. Use a legal lay-by or pull-out and shoot from the verge, well clear of traffic.
Place the road with purpose. A road entering from a bottom corner feels like a journey; one running straight up the centre feels formal and endless.
Move the horizon. Shoot one frame with more road and one with more sky. A high horizon makes the route feel intimate; a low one puts it at the mercy of the weather.
Wait for weather. Low cloud, fog, snow and storm light do most of the work in Lee’s pictures. As he says of Iceland, you sometimes only have to wait minutes for the light to change.