Ragnar Axelsson
Encyclopedia
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
in 1958. He has been a staff photographer of Morgunblaðið
Morgunblaðið
Morgunblaðið is a newspaper published in Iceland, founded by Vilhjálmur Finsen & Olaf Björnsson, brother to the first president. The first issue, only eight pages long, was published on 2 November 1913. Six years later, in 1919, the corporation Árvakur bought out the company...
(Iceland's largest newspaper) since 1976. Ragnar has done work and stories for various agencies and magazines, shooting in Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
, the Faroes
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands are a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, along with Denmark proper and Greenland...
, Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
, and Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
.
Ragnar has been travelling to the Arctic now for almost three decades. His images have won him recognition as a documentary photographer. He has had photographs and picture essays published in Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
, National Geographic, Le Figaro
Le Figaro
Le Figaro is a French daily newspaper founded in 1826 and published in Paris. It is one of three French newspapers of record, with Le Monde and Libération, and is the oldest newspaper in France. It is also the second-largest national newspaper in France after Le Parisien and before Le Monde, but...
, Stern
Stern (magazine)
Stern is a weekly news magazine published in Germany. It was founded in 1948 by Henri Nannen, and is currently published by Gruner + Jahr, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann. In the first quarter of 2006, its print run was 1.019 million copies and it reached 7.84 million readers according to...
, La Vanguardia
La Vanguardia
La Vanguardia is Catalonia's leading daily newspaper as well as the fourth best-selling in Spain. It has its headquarters in Barcelona, Catalonia's largest city....
, Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, and elsewhere.
Ragnar's book Andlit Norðursins (2004; English edition Faces of the North 2005) is a collection of his black-and-white photographs of vanishing ways of life in Iceland, the Faroes and Greenland taken over a period of fifteen years. His most recent book, Last Days of the Arctic (2010), has won critical acclaim, with multiple photo features in the New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
and exhibitions most recently in Iceland and Ireland. As a photography "Book of the Year", the (London) Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
described his work as 'remarkable', 'beautiful', and 'a gift for the eyes, mind and heart'. This body of work presents a unique record of daily life and culture of some of the most remote communities in the world, and the twilight of their society.
Books
- The Golden Circle. Photographs by Páll Stefánsson, Ragnar Axelsson and Mats Wibe-Lund. Reykjavík: Iceland Review, 1989.
- Reykjavik. Reykjavík: Hagall, c 1991. ISBN 9979-81600-7. A book in color.
- Faces and figures: Contemporary Scandinavian photography. New York: American Scandinavian Foundation, 2001. Catalogue of an exhibition held at Scandinavia House, The Nordic Center in America, Apríl–July 2001, and elsewhere.
- Ólafsson, Guðmundur Páll. Um víðerni Snæfells. Reykjavík: Mál og menning, 2003. ISBN 9979-32421-X. This book, whose title is translatable as "Through the vastness near Snæfell" (i.e. the SnæfellSnæfellThere are three volcanoes with the name Snæfell in Iceland:* The famous mountain Snæfellsjökull with its big glacier on top lies to the west of the island ....
volcano northeast of VatnajökullVatnajökullVatnajökull is the largest glacier in Iceland. It is located in the south-east of the island, covering more than 8% of the country.-Size:With an area of 8,100 km², Vatnajökull is the largest ice cap in Europe by volume and the second largest in area Vatnajökull is the largest glacier in...
), documents an area going underwater because of the Kárahnjúkar Hydropower ProjectKárahnjúkar Hydropower ProjectKárahnjúkar Hydropower Plant is a hydroelectric power plant in eastern Iceland designed to produce 4,600 GWh annually for Alcoa's Fjardaál aluminum smelter to the east in Reyðarfjörður. The project, named after nearby Mount Kárahnjúkur, involves damming the Jökulsá á Dal River and the Jökulsá...
, and has photographs by Axelsson and also Friðþjófur Helgason and Jóhann Ísberg. - Andlit Norðursins: Ísland, Færeyjar, Grænland. Reykjavík: Mál og menning, 2004. ISBN 9979-3-2561-5. Various translations have also appeared:
- Faces of the North: Iceland, Faroe Islands, Greenland. Reykjavík: Mál og menning, 2005. ISBN 9979-3-2592-5.
- Visages du Nord: Islande, Féroé, Groenland. Reykjavík: Mál og menning, 2005. ISBN 9979-32593-3.
- Die Seele des Nordens. Island, Färöer, Grönland. Reykjavík: Mál og menning, 2005. ISBN 9979-32561-5, ISBN 9979-32594-1.
- Veiðimenn norðursins. Photographs by Ragnar Axelsson, text by Mark Nuttall. Reykjavík: Crymogea, 2010. ISBN 978-9935-420-03-9.
- Last Days of the Arctic. Photographs by Ragnar Axelsson, text by Mark Nuttall. London: Polarworld, 2010; Reykjavík: Crymogea, 2010. ISBN 978-0955525520. English-language version of Veiðimenn norðursins.
Awards
- The annual Icelandic Photojournalists Awards: More than twenty awards, including Photographer of the Year (four times) and Documentary Story of the Year (six times)
- The Oskar Barnack Prize (Leica), 2001. Honourable Mention
- Festival International de la Photo de Mer, VannesVannesVannes is a commune in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France. It was founded over 2000 years ago.-Geography:Vannes is located on the Gulf of Morbihan at the mouth of two rivers, the Marle and the Vincin. It is around 100 km northwest of Nantes and 450 km south west...
, Grand Prix.
Exhibitions
In addition to numerous group shows within Iceland:- The Reykjavik Municipal Museum, 1990.
- "Tender is the North, visual arts from Scandinavia", Barbican Arts Centre, London, 1992.
- Visa pour l'Image: Festival International du Photojournalisme, PerpignanPerpignan-Sport:Perpignan is a rugby stronghold: their rugby union side, USA Perpignan, is a regular competitor in the Heineken Cup and seven times champion of the Top 14 , while their rugby league side plays in the engage Super League under the name Catalans Dragons.-Culture:Since 2004, every year in the...
, 2000; screening of North Atlantic Project. - Rencontres d'Arles, 2001.
- "Faces and Figures: Contemporary Scandinavian Photography". Scandinavia House, New York, 2001. Haggerty Museum of ArtPatrick and Beatrice Haggerty Museum of ArtThe Partick and Beatrice Haggerty Museum of Art, sometimes referred to simply as "the Haggerty", is located at 13th and Clybourn Streets on the campus of Marquette University in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States...
, Milwaukee, 2002. - "Un Mondo ai Confini del Mondo". ClicArt, Museo Zucchi Collection, Milan, 2002.
- Festival della Val d'Orcia, Italy, 2003.
- Festival International de la Photo de Mer, VannesVannesVannes is a commune in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France. It was founded over 2000 years ago.-Geography:Vannes is located on the Gulf of Morbihan at the mouth of two rivers, the Marle and the Vincin. It is around 100 km northwest of Nantes and 450 km south west...
, France, 2003. - Galerie Argus fotokunst, Berlin, Germany, 2004
- Altonaer Museum (Norddeutsches Landesmuseum), HamburgHamburg-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Germany, 2004 - FnacFnacFnac is an international entertainment retail chain offering cultural and electronic products, founded by André Essel and Max Théret in 1954. It is the largest retailer of its kind in France...
Italie 2, Paris, 2004. - Niedersächsischen Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, 2004.
- Alfred-Ehrhardt-Stiftung, Germany 2005.
- "Faces of the North." Austurvellir, Reykjavík.
- Paris Photo 2005, Louvre, Paris.
- Musée de la Cohue, VannesVannesVannes is a commune in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France. It was founded over 2000 years ago.-Geography:Vannes is located on the Gulf of Morbihan at the mouth of two rivers, the Marle and the Vincin. It is around 100 km northwest of Nantes and 450 km south west...
, 2007. - FnacFnacFnac is an international entertainment retail chain offering cultural and electronic products, founded by André Essel and Max Théret in 1954. It is the largest retailer of its kind in France...
, Milan, 2007 - Galerie Argus fotokunst, Berlin, Germany, 2008.
- The Athy Heritage Centre-Museum and 10th Anniversary Shackleton School, Ireland, 2010.
External links
- Axelsson's site
- Last Days of the Arctic at Polarworld
- Veidimenn Nordursins at Crymogea
- Faces of the North
- Lorna Siggins, "Chronicle of a community on thin ice", Irish Times Review.
- "The Hunters of Greenland", New York Times slideshow.
- "Last days of the Arctic: Photographs by RAX", Arctic Portal, 22 November 2010. Videos.