Iceland review - 2017, Qupperneq 36

Páll Stefánsson speaks with photographer
Ragnar Axelsson, a.k.a. RAX, about his
award-winning book Faces of the North.
MONOCHROME
MAN
RAX, Ragnar Axelsson, is one of the most accom-
plished documentary photographers in the world,
and his new book Faces of the North, is the first book
of photography to win the Icelandic Literary Award in
the category of non-fiction. The project is the result of
more than 30 years of documenting the lives of hunters,
fishermen and farmers across Iceland, the Faroe Islands
and Greenland. In the 400-page book, RAX covers the
delicate relationship between the islands’ inhabitants and
their environment, including stories about the vanishing
cultures of the North. “A book like this, is not one man’s
work,” RAX remarks, referring to the contribution of
designer Einar Geir Ingvarsson, publisher Kristján B.
Jónasson and editor María Rán Guðjónsdóttir.
Born in 1958, RAX started his career at the daily
Morgunblaðið in 1974, then 16 years old, with his father’s
Leica SL. Now, 43 years later, he still works at the news-
paper, still using a Leica SL, though this time the state-of-
the-art mirrorless camera, as well as a Leica Monochrome.
BY PÁLL STEFÁNSSON. PHOTOS BY RAGNAR AXELSSON.
Greenland 1987. A hungry sled dog north of Qaanaaq, Thule.