Title: Faces of The North
Author: Ragnar Axelsson
Published by: Querndu, Iceland Small Edition 2019
I recently returned from my trip to Iceland and I have to share latest addition to my Photographer’s Library. Ragnar Axelsson‘s work is well known and l admired it long before I travelled to Iceland. I already have a small review of his book here as well. His work is amazing, so there was no question about what I wanted to bring back from my holiday. It was a struggle to find this book in the UK but it was quite easy to pick up a copy of Faces of the North in one of the bookshops in Reykjavik.
The book
Ragnar Axelsson, known as RAX, spent many years photographing people and communities in Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland, documenting ways of life closely connected to the harsh northern environment. The original project was made over roughly 15 years and is entirely black-and-white.RAX gets very close to his subjects. There are faces marked by weather and work, animals, boats, snow, ice and enormous empty landscapes. The photographs have a raw, almost physical quality. You can almost feel the cold and wind in them.
The small edition actually works surprisingly well. The reduced format makes the book feel intimate, almost like a personal photographic diary. The pictures don’t need to be huge because their strength comes from the people and the atmosphere. Some photographs are quiet and simple, while others are incredibly powerful and stay in your mind long after you have turned the page.
So, as a conclusion, what’s my verdict?
Well , there is not much I can add, this book is great. It shows the beauty of the Arctic with its toughness, isolation and humanity.
A great little book for anyone interested in Iceland, Arctic photography, documentary work or simply very good black-and-white photography.
Here is the previous book review