Exhibition: The Last Days of the Arctic
26.01.12
Culture
Photojournalist Ragnar Axelsson's haunting snowscapes capture a disappearing lifestyle and habitat
(Header Image above: Narwhal hunters, Qaanaaq, North Greenland 1987 © Ragnar Axelsson. [cropped- for full frame see below])
Narwhal hunters, Qaanaaq, North Greenland 1987 © Ragnar Axelsson
It comes as news to very few that the polar ice caps are melting. Those who were avid viewers of the documentary series will have been shocked at the marked contrast between the polar landscapes of a few decades ago and their dwindling appearance in the present day. But what of those who have made these places their home? The Inuit way of life that was so famously documented in Robert J.Flaherty's 'Nanook of the North' is fast disappearing. Indeed, Flaherty's need to document was propelled by this very thought, a decade shy of a hundred years ago.
But what of now? There is an urgent need to document the fast-diminishing way of life of Arctic communities, a need which the Icelandic photojournalist Ragnar Axelsson felt acutely when photographing the farmers and fisherman of the country's remote villages. In a more recent series, he documents the lives of Greenlandic hunters, their dependence on a vanishing landscape and the nature around them. It is a unique example of photo-reportage with an under-documented community as its main subject.
Polar bear skin, Ittoqqortoormiit, East Greenland 1996 © Ragnar Axelsson
The images themselves are hauntingly beautiful, seeming to exist outside of time and space. The blurred horizons and wintry skies can occassionally verge on the impressionistic as startling snowscaps vanish into the distance. The subjects themselves appear very much part of the landscape on which they are so reliant, while Axelsson's lens lends them a dignity that was somewhat lacking in the more ethnographic work of Flaherty. Here, we see, are people rather than 'types', and we need not be reminded that, in the global context of climate change, their suffering will not be of their own making.
The exhibition "The Last Days of the Artic", showcasing Axelsson's work begins today at Proud Chelsea. Axelsson has worked for many years on the Icelandic newspaper Morgunblaðið, and his documentary work featured in Life, Times, and National Geographic. The book "The Last Days of the Arctic" was published in 2010 and voted book of the year by The Times.
Last Days of the Arctic will run 26 Jan – 11 Mar at Proud Chelsea (www.proud.co.uk)
Dog, Baffin Island, Canada 2007 © Ragnar Axelsson
