Draft:Andrés Kolbeinsson

Andrés Kolbeinsson was an Icelandic musician and photographer.

Kolbeinsson was born at Þorvaldsstaðir in Hvítársíðir on September 7, 1919 and died on January 15, 2009. His parents were farmer and blacksmith Kolbeinn Guðmundsson, and Helga Jónsdóttir.

Kolbeinsson studied Héraðsskólann í Reykholti from 1936 to 1938, and later music at the Reykjavík College of Music, or Tónlistarskólann í Reykjavík. He went on to study at the Royal Manchester College of Music and graduated in 1947. During his time in England, Kolbeinsson met and began a relationship with Beryl Joy Tongue. The pair later married and had two children.

After completing his studies, Andrés returned to Iceland and joined the Útvarps­hljómsveitinni Orchestra as an oboist and later was with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra from 1950 to 1977, when he became the band's scorekeeper, as well as being a sheet music writer for the symphony and the Iceland Music Information Centre until 1999. After Kolbeinsson left the symphony, he taught music at several schools in Reykjavík and was a librarian at the Icelandic Institute of Industry 1954–1960 and a photographer at Orkustofnun from 1970 to 1980.

To supplement his musical income, Kolbeinsson began a career in photography. He became known for his photography of daily Icelandic life, Icelandic art culture, portraiture, and product photography for local businesses. His work is a distinct snapshot of life in Iceland, particularly showcasing the shifts between 1952 and 1965. In 1999, the Reykjavík Museum of Photography received Andrés Kolbeinsson's photography collection for preservation. Kolbeinsson photographed many well known Icelandic cultural figures, including Halldór Laxness, Barbara Árnason, Steinunn Marteinsdóttir, Sverrir Haraldsson, Gunnlaug Scheving, Jón Engilberts, Nína Tryggvadóttir, Þorvaldur Skúlason and Dieter Roth.

When Hörður Ágústsson and others started publishing the magazine "Birting" and writing about architecture, Andrés took pictures for the magazine. Andrés also worked with other designers and architects, including Mannfreð Vilhjálmsson and Hjalti Geir Kristjánsson.

Andrés also filmed for the theatres such as the Leikfélag Reykjavíkur, or the Reykjavík Theatre Company. He came up with the innovation of using stage lighting instead of flash lights, in this way he managed to capture the atmosphere of the theater. In Andrés's collection there are pictures from various Icelandic companies, i.a. Kassagerð Reykjavík, Sementsverksmiðinn in Akranes, Frystihúsin Ísbirnin and Mokkakaffi to name a few. In 2006, the Reykjavík Museum of Photography held an overview exhibition of Andrés' photos, the exhibition was very well received and Andrés was nominated for the Icelandic Visual Art Copyright Association's Honorary Award for his contribution to photography following the exhibition. The exhibition catalog contains an interview with Kolbeinsson, where the reader gets an insight into his photography and life career.

A large part of Andrés' photo collection is available on the Reykjavík Photography Museum's website, ljosmyndasafreykvikur.is