Kat Austen, CultureLab editor
(Image: Ragnar Axelsson)
Photographer Ragnar Axelsson captures an austere waning world beautifully in his exhibition Last Days of the Arctic
"THE
big ice is sick." These words, spoken by an old Inuit hunter, capture
for photographer Ragnar Axelsson the tragedy of the disappearing
Arctic. Over the last 25 years Axelsson has made many visits to the
frigid wilderness from his home in Iceland. His new exhibition, Last
Days of the Arctic, is his attempt to document a dying land.
Axelsson
travelled the austere landscape of remote Greenland and Canada by
traditional dog sled, often crawling at 5 kilometres per hour at -40
°C. "You're fighting the cold and wind, just watching white ice over
and over. It's a long time between some action." The temperature posed
gruesome challenges, he recalls: "Your fingernails get loose when
you're trying to open the camera."
The
region has changed dramatically since Axelsson first started visiting.
"Twenty-five years ago the ice was one metre thick," he says. "Last
year, it was so thin you couldn't even jump off the dog sled."
The
ice is now inaccessible for long periods, changing hunting seasons and
methods. Its retreat has opened isolated villages to tourism, changing
the aspirations of the younger population and saddening those who wish
their traditional culture to persist. Combined with a decreased demand
for hunting products, the changes are causing Inuit hunters to lose
hope. "Two of my friends have committed suicide," Axelsson tells me.
"They think there is no light at the end of the tunnel."
Axelsson
captures this complex dynamic in his photographs: a sled dwarfed by the
glacier it passes beneath, hunters trapped by a snowstorm, the
weathered face of an old man clutching a husky puppy. He provides
breathtaking insight, before the subject melts away.
Last Days of the Arctic by Ragnar Axelsson runs at the Proud Chelsea gallery in London until 11 March
http://www.newscientist.com
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