Into the woods

The best part of the Times' Iceland's Ring Road: The Ultimate Road Trip are definitely the photos; the text itself is self-indulgent and reads abruptly.

Every so often the Times publishes these astonishing photos in its travel section, photos that are more like paintings and that have spectacular light.

This one brought to mind a painting I saw recently at the Art Institute of Chicago by the Norwegian Harald Sohlberg.

No wonder all these Scandanavians left for America... concentrated beauty of any kind is dangerous and hard on the soul, particularly if it's dark half the year.

Photo of a farmhouse near the Ring Road in Iceland by Jehad Nga for The New York Times.

Image of Harald Sohlberg's 1907 painting Fisherman's Cottage found in various places online.