Ragnar Axelsson

Ragner Axelsson (Rax, as he calls himself) is a photographer from Iceland. Famous for his photojournalism. He is a member of staff at the newspaper Morgenbladid, which is Icelands biggest newspaper as well as a freelance photographer that travels the world in his spare time.
I came across his work when a tutor at college told us about a documentary on him he had watched available to watch on the BBC iPlayer.
The link for you (if your interested): http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search?q=rax
I was quite surprised by the work I came across, it was unusual and without understanding the context some of his wouldn't make sense or would be seen to be photographically weak images when talking in the terms of photography rules. They display a huge amount of emotion and every picture tells a story.
Ragner started photographing when he was very young and used to visit a small farm in Iceland that could only be reached by plane. From there he started to go out researching the land with the family before starting hunting with other locals documenting as much as he could. When he moved to the city to work he would go and visit the rural areas as often as possible and build up trust with the locals so he was able to photograph there activities without them being suspicious. He would also visit other countries such as Greenland and has been to Africa to photograph people suffering from Aids and similar illnesses.
The documentary showed how he became friends with local people that used what we would call old fashioned methods to hunt animals such as seals, fish and polar bears. Seeing those methods alone was very interesting and worth watching the programme for. It also documented him climbing up the mountains and the volcano which erupted and caused all flights in Europe to be grounded, the atmosphere was incredible.
Throughout the documentary Axelsson displayed a series of his images and explained the stories behind them and how or why he chose to photograph them. You also saw how he put his life at risk in order to get some of the outcomes he did - for example the polar bear, walking up to a live polar bear to capture it when not even the hunters (who knew what they were doing after years of experience) would approach it. Seeing the pictures come together and the lengths he had to go to in order to gain the shot he wanted was great for the audience as it gave them a deeper understanding of the images and the emotions that the people were feeling.
After watching the documentary I learnt a lot about the way in which he chooses to work along with why he worked in such a way. The documentary also briefly looked at the traditional ways the local people worked and hunted which again was an interesting lesson.

This image is perhaps his most recognised piece of work and a friend of his whom he says was difficult to work with, not because of his personality but because he moved to fast for his photographs.
I love this image because due to a large ammount of mist present in the air the background is made up of very pale shades and it is difficult to focus on the details that would be in these areas. The man pictured has a big impact on the photograph because he stands out so much, there is a lot of contrast between him and the background, and the clothes he is wearing provide a very solid shade of black to immediately capture your eyes attention. Although you can barely see what is happening in the background of the image it is clear he is walking down beside the sea, the cliffs can be seen slightly and the wind from the tide is sweeping his hair. The man himself has been cleverly positioned on the left hand side of the framing, which is important because then you can vaguely see what is happening. The line of the mans sight directs your eyes elsewhere but it seems to “bounce back” so to speak because of the frames edge.