She beat 127,642 other hopefuls to be crowned the world’s worst photographer and this
September; Londoners can see that despite her lack of training or photographic expertise, even the world’s worst photographer can take beautiful photos of Iceland.
Blanche Mortemard, 28, from Paris, will put her totally candid and unmistakably real photos of Iceland on public
display for the first time at Taste of Iceland in London, before they star in Icelandair’s next global advertising campaign.
It’s the payoff from a search Icelandair launched back in April, when it went looking for a “Really Bad” photographer
to capture Iceland exactly as it is: no filters, no AI, no retouching. New research from the airline explains why: 54% of Brits say they trust real, authentic travel photos more than professionally edited ones, compared to just 4% who trust the polished version
more.
Even we can’t resist a filter
Most of us are guilty of the very thing we say we don’t trust. On average, Brits take seven photos before finding
one they’re happy to post, while 6 in 10 social media posters admit to filtering or editing their travel photos before sharing them. Even our “real” moments get a second draft.
From competition winner to global campaign star
Blanche spent 10 days in June 2026 travelling across Iceland, photographing its most iconic landscapes exactly
as she found them. The results go on public display for the first time as part of the
Iceland by the World’s Worst Photographer exhibition at White Rabbit Studios, Friday 11th (2pm–8pm) and Saturday 12th September (1pm–9pm).
Blanche will host a live Artist Talk on Saturday at 5pm, sharing her experience shooting one of the world’s most
photogenic countries, badly. Selected images will also feature in Icelandair’s upcoming global advertising campaign this September.
What Brits really want from travel brands
Icelandair’s research suggests the instinct behind the campaign is well founded. 59% of Brits say real travel
photos from actual travellers would make them most likely to book with an airline or destination, and younger travellers want the real thing most of all: 18-24s are far more likely than the over 50s to trust unfiltered photos when researching a destination
(64% vs 45%), and 73% have felt disappointed by a destination that didn’t live up to its photos online, nearly three times the rate among over 65s (25%).
Asked what a campaign built on raw, unfiltered photos of Iceland would communicate, 47% said it would prove Iceland
doesn’t need filters to look attractive, while 40% said it would make the destination feel more authentic. Exactly what Blanche was hired to prove.
Blanche Mortemard, Icelandair’s World’s Worst Photographer, said: “Being told I was the best at being
the worst felt like a strange kind of contradiction, and one I’ve come to genuinely love. Iceland makes it almost impossible to take a bad photo, despite my total inability to straighten the camera or take one without my thumb in shot. Celebrating the perfectly
imperfect moments is what travel is really about anyway; the ones you actually remember are rarely the ones that looked flawless in a photo.”
Gísli S. Brynjólfsson, Global Director of Marketing, Icelandair, said:
“We set out to prove that Iceland doesn’t need a steady hand or a filter to look extraordinary, and Blanche has made our case better than any professional could have. Our research told us people are tired of travel content that’s been polished within an
inch of its life; they want to see the real thing, wonky horizons and all. So, we found the person least equipped to give them anything else and let Iceland do the rest.”
Iceland by the World’s Worst Photographer is free to attend as part of Taste of Iceland London. Tickets
can be reserved via www.inspiredbyiceland.com/taste-of-iceland/london.
Blanche’s photography will also feature in Icelandair’s upcoming global advertising campaign, so keep an eye out.
