Ragnar Axelsson

• Name — Ragnar Axelsson • Born — 6 March 1958 • Other Names — RAX • Occupation — Photographer • Years Active — 1976–present • Employer — Morgunblaðið (1976–2020) Ragnar Guðni Axelsson (born 6 March 1958), also known as RAX, is an Icelandic photographer. He was a staff photographer of Morgunblaðið from 1974 to 2020. Ragnar has done work and stories for various agencies and magazines, shooting in Iceland, the Faroes, Greenland, Indonesia, Scandinavia, and Siberia.

Ragnar has been traveling to the Arctic for almost three decades. His images have won him recognition as a documentary photographer. He has had photographs and picture essays published in Life, National Geographic Magazine, Le Figaro, Stern, La Vanguardia, Time, and elsewhere. Ragnar's book Andlit Norðursins (2004; English edition Faces of the North 2005) is a collection of his black-and-white photographs of vanishing ways of life in Iceland, the Faroes and Greenland taken over a period of fifteen years. His most recent book, Last Days of the Arctic (2010), has won critical acclaim, with multiple photo features in the New York Times and exhibitions most recently in Iceland and Ireland. As a photography "Book of the Year", the (London) Times described his work as 'remarkable', 'beautiful', and 'a gift for the eyes, mind and heart'. This body of work presents a unique record of daily life and culture of some of the most remote communities in the world, and the twilight of their society. In 2011, Ragnar wrote an introduction to Iceland, a journal of nocturnes, a photographic monograph by Scottish photographer Bruce Percy. In March 2020, he left Morgunblaðið after working there since 1976.

In addition to numerous group shows within Iceland: • The Reykjavik Municipal Museum, 1990. • "Tender is the North, visual arts from Scandinavia", Barbican Arts Centre, London, 1992. • Visa pour l'Image: Festival International du Photojournalisme, Perpignan, 2000; screening of North Atlantic Project. • Rencontres d'Arles, 2001. • "Faces and Figures: Contemporary Scandinavian Photography". Scandinavia House, New York, 2001. Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, 2002. • "Un Mondo ai Confini del Mondo". ClicArt, Museo Zucchi Collection, Milan, 2002. • Festival della Val d'Orcia, Italy, 2003. • Festival International de la Photo de Mer, Vannes, France, 2003. • Galerie Argus fotokunst, Berlin, Germany, 2004 • Altonaer Museum (Norddeutsches Landesmuseum), Hamburg, Germany, 2004 • Fnac Italie 2, Paris, 2004. • Niedersächsischen Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, 2004. • Alfred-Ehrhardt-Stiftung, Germany 2005. • "Faces of the North." Austurvellir, Reykjavík. • Paris Photo 2005, Louvre, Paris. • Musée de la Cohue, Vannes, 2007. • Fnac, Milan, 2007 • Galerie Argus fotokunst, Berlin, Germany, 2008. • The Athy Heritage Centre-Museum and 10th Anniversary Shackleton School, Ireland, 2010. • "Glacier" Ásmundarsalur, Reykjavík, Iceland, 2018. • "Where the World is Melting" Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavík, Iceland, 2021. • "Where the World is Melting" Kunstfoyer Versicherungskammer Kulturstiftung, Munich, Germany, 2022 • "Where the World is Melting" Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany, 2023