ICELAND | RAGNAR AXELSSON

Ragnar Axelsson in Greenland

Portrait of Ragnar Axelsson (a.k.a. RAX) in Greenland. © Ragnar Axelsson. Used with permission.

“Hunters on the Inglefield Fjord” by Ragnar Alexsson, part of the Greenland series, 2004. © Ragnar Alexsson. Used with permission

“A woman peers through her window in Tasiusaq, a small village in the southwestern Greenland” by Ragnar Axelsson, from the Greenland series, 2004. Captions retrieved from NYTimes.com © Ragnar Axelsson. Used with permission.

“The Northern Lights glow above Tinnittaqilaq village” by Ragnar Axelsson from the series Greenland, 2004. Captions retrieved from NYTimes.com © Ragnar Axelsson. Used with permission.

Ragnar Axelsson, also known as RAX, is a renowned, award-winning freelance photographer born in Iceland in 1958. He has been documenting the vanishing lifestyles of various Arctic communities for the past 30 years. Here’s what he has to say about Greenland in particular:
Greenland, the biggest Island in the world, is a pearl with harsh elements. Inuites have been there for more than 4.000 years living on the land. In the old days Inuites where living in igloos and small cabins made of stones. It was a struggle for food everyday; hunting birds, fish, whales, seals, walruses and polar bears. Every single part of the hunted animal was being used. Skin for clothing, meat was eaten. The old hunting tradition is fading away as new posibilities in the modern world are taking over. (source: Fotopub.com)

“A glacier storm in Sermiliqaq village” by Ragnar Axelsson, from the Greenland series, 2004. Captions retrieved from NYTImes.com © Ragnar Axelsson. Used with permission.

Rax’s photos have been featured in publications such as LIFE, National Geographic, Le Figaro, Stern, La Vanguardia, TIME and The New York Times. He has held exhibitions in Iceland, France, Germany, Italy and the United-States (see his complete official profile). So far, he has published two books: Face of the north (originally Andlit Norðursins, 2004) and Last days of the Arctic (originally Veiðimenn norðursins, 2010). English versions for both those books appear to be sold out almost everywhere at the time of writing. Used copies, although available, are quite expensive (Shop Icelandic may still have some copies of Last days of the Arctic). Apparently, the publisher Forlagid is planning to release a new English edition of Faces of the North in 2013 (see Shop Icelandic for details).

“Dog in the blizzard” by Ragnar Axelsson a.k.a. RAX, from the series Greenland, 2004. © Ragnar Axelsson. Used with permission.

All images © Ragnar Axelsson

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