Arctic heroes

Ragnar Axelsson’s interest in photography dates back to his childhood when he would regularly peruse his father’s collection of photography-led magazines. He recalls, ‘My first impression of great photographers was when I was looking through magazines like LIFE, Stern and The Sunday Times Magazine. I found old LIFE magazines in the loft, where I was staying on a farm as a kid, and the Eugene Smith issues were stunning. He was a great hero… when I saw those photographs it was something I wanted to do.’

In 1976, aged just 18, Axelsson began working as a photojournalist for the newspaper in his native Iceland but it wasn’t till ten years later that he first visited Greenland. At that time he was accumulating flying hours for his pilot’s licence, but quickly realised there weren’t enough jobs to justify trying to carve out a career as a pilot. He reveals, ‘I wasn’t too keen on it [Greenland] in the beginning but I had read about great explorers like Knud Rasmussen, Peter