Happy depression /Tribute to Ragnar Axelsson

The only thing I can say to this kind of photography and what Ragnar Axelsson tells us with it is .. waw.

http://www.rax.is/Index.htm

Interview with the photographer on Photobards.com:

Ragnar Axelsson

Type of photography: document, reportage
Personal website: http://www.rax.is
Country: Iceland
Camera type: film and digital

Please introduce yourself. How old are you, where do you live and what is your job?

Ragnar Axelsson born 1958, 51 years old and living in Iceland and I am a staff photographer at the newspaper Morgunbladid.

How long have you been taking photos and what brought you to photography?

I started taking photographs at the age of 10 when I was on a farm on the south east coast of Iceland. I got interested in birds and to the people who lived nearby the farm. It was isolated and there where no bridges over the rivers so it was an adventure everyday, even going to church on Sundays could be difficult passing rivers from the glaciers. At the age of 16 I decided to be a photographer or a pilot , I did learn both but decidet to work as a photographer.

What photographic equipment do you use? What is your favourite film material?

When I am photographing for my self like in Greenland or Iceland I do it in black and white using film cameras. At work I use Canon digital for the daily routine, it's faster and suits that kind of work . I use a Leica M6, Mamiya 7 and Mamiya 6 x 4,5 and I also have Linhof 6x12. My favorite film is Tri-X and T-Max 100.

You have been taking pictures all around the world, which place impressed you the most?

There are many great places to photograph, Greenland is my favorite at the moment because I am finishing a book, ( THE LAST DAYS OF THE ARCTIC ) and the silence and beauty of the country is unbelievable.

Do you rather take pictures of Island or abroad? 

I do most of my work here in Iceland . I wish I could travel more and do more documentary but newspapers and magazines are not as great as they used to be, and the use of the photographs is not as good, the passion is gone in most of them.

Have you ever been afraid when photographing? Can you think of any dangerous situation you ever came across? 

Yes and no you have to keep your head cool on the spot, but afterwards when danger is over and thinking back can bring back bad feelings but I never think about for a long time . There are so many I hardly can count them.

Your photographs of people are full of emotions, are there people confiding their stories to you?

Yes I would say so I try to know people and show them respect when photographing part in their lives.

What attracts you to the black&white photographs, aren't you tempted by color? 

Black and white is the beauty of photography to me. Henry Cartier Bresson , W. Eugene Smith , Mary Ellen Mark , James Nachtway and some others and their work is so great , almost out of this world. Black and white makes the images stronger than color images we are so familiar with now. I don't have anything against color and I do color a lot , but my heart is black and white.

Your photos are quite often sad - is that the influence of Iceland, as your "mother island"?

I just try to catch the moment and atmosphere when like traveling with the hunters in Greenland and see the story in their faces. I have not thought about sadness, I am always smiling and happy, and I try to make things as real as I can.

You have a lot of awards on your account, which one do you value most?

I am a shy person and I am not trying to win awards. Standing in front of somebody and receiving awards is the hardest thing I do. I am grateful for the awards that I have gained and thankful for everyone of them, I would say that the Oscar Barnack honorable mention award was great to have because one of the judges was Roger Thérond which was the photo editor at Paris Match. Henry Cartier Bresson called him the "unsure passable eye", that was a great honor for me to get that from him and the rest of the jury. I was told later that he was one of the best photo editors ever on this planet.

Ragnar Axelsson on Ideas Tap:

Ragnar Axelsson: Photographing the Arctic

For over two decades Ragnar Axelssson has been documenting the working life of Greenlandic hunters, a tradition now under threat due to climate change. Here the Icelandic photojournalist tells IdeasMag how he works in freezing weather conditions and what keeps drawing him back to the Arctic…

I have been going back and forth to Greenland for 25 years.

The first time, I just went by myself; I didn’t even speak the language. I learned a few words so I could say some sentences that they understood, but it was a difficult language. I was usually with them hunting on the ice for two to three weeks at a time but they’re there for two or three months. Once I gained the hunters’ trust, I was always welcome. We’re good friends now; whenever they pass through Iceland they call me and I drive around with them and show them around.

I loved the wilderness of the Arctic. It was like going into a book one hundred years back in time – it was so spectacular. The landscape and the environment there is such a unique thing. You’re the richest person on earth – you see billions of stars at night and it’s all yours.

It was was difficult photographing in the Arctic but it’s like a state of mind – you focus your head on something and you get used to it. You have to be careful – you could lose your fingernails by opening your camera. It sometimes made me wonder what it would be like to be on the moon. You’re wearing gloves, trying to take pictures and it was hard because it’s minus 30, 35, 40 degrees sometimes, and windy, so it’s very cold. I used manual film cameras – it’s not worth using batteries when you’re on the ice because everything freezes when you’re out there.

Sometimes I really had to fight not to stop. I would promise myself I’m not going back but after being home for 10 days it was like a magnet dragging me back again. The America photographer Mary Ellen Mark, who is a good friend of mine and was myteacher many years ago, always told me one thing “don’t stop, keep on taking pictures”. One time when I was on the dog sled, it was minus 35 and I was packing my gear down, saying “I’m finished” and she popped up in my head saying “keep on taking pictures” – that kept me going.

At first I had just wanted to go to a remote place to get something special. I wasn’t thinking about anything, I was just getting good pictures, like a painter. But after 10 years I realised that something was happening, that the Inuit hunters were worried about the ice getting thinner and thinner. I go every fifth year to Qaanaaq and the ice was thick when I started 25 years ago, but last year it was thin. You could hardly go up there with the dog sled – you would fall through the ice.

It’s hard to use photography to show that change because the surface of the ice looks the same but I wanted to document the life of a 4000-year-old tradition that might be near its end.

 

Ragnar Axelsson was talking to Rachel Segal Hamilton.

Last Days of the Arctic runs until 11 March 2012 at Proud Chelsea, London.

All images © Ragnar Axelsson.