Ragnar Axelsson / Arctic Heroes

Arctic Heroes takes a poignant look at the fate of the Greenland sled dog.

In Greenland, where the melting ice sheet is irrevocably disrupting the hunters’ 4,000-year old traditional way of life, the stark reality of global warming is an immediate and direct threat to their everyday survival. The Greenland sled dog, essential to Inuit settlement and survival, now faces extinction as hunters are forced to adapt to the vanishing world around them. In over 150 images, and through hunters’ personal stories, this book bears witness to the animals’ magnificence and the deep, integral role they play in the hunters’ lives.

The subjects of Icelandic photographer Ragnar Axelsson, also known as RAX (b. 1958), are people, animals, and landscape, but the focus of his work is the extraordinary relationships the people of the Arctic have developed with their extreme environment.

Language: English
Size: 34,8 x 25,2 cm, 290 pages
Binding: hardcover
Publisher: Kehrer Verlag, 2020

Awards: Shortlist Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2020