Abenteuer Reportagefotografie – Podcast über visuelles Storytelling

Kai Behrmann: Visueller Storyteller und Fotograf

Since 11/2016 426 Episoden

Ragnar Axelsson on photographing in the Arctic: "It's a beautiful life that's fading away" (ARCHIV)

Seit Jahrzehnten fotografiert Ragnar Axelsson in arktischen Regionen: Dort hat der Isländer die Folgen des Klimawandels für Mensch und Natur miterlebt.

17.12.2023 63 min

Zusammenfassung & Show Notes

Seit Jahrzehnten fotografiert Ragnar Axelsson in arktischen Regionen: Dort hat der Isländer die Folgen des Klimawandels für Mensch und Natur miterlebt. Seine Bilder von rauher Schönheit zeigen eine Welt, die im Begriff ist, für immer zu verschwinden.

(Interview in English)

In diesem Interview teilt Ragnar sein Wissen, wie ausdrucksstarke Bilder gelingen und was gutes Storytelling bedeutet. Außerdem erzählt er viele Anekdoten – u.a. warum er zu Hause kein Geschirr mehr spülen muss oder warum er einst nur für einen Tag nach New York flog, um eine Ausstellung von W. Eugene Smith zu besuchen.

Webseite von Ragnar Axelsson: https://rax.is/

Die Bewegtbilder zu diesem Interview sowie vom Festival "La Gacilly–Baden Photo" insgesamt findest du in einem Video auf Thomas' YouTube-Kanal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZp7bMoFW88&t=55s

Diese Folge erschien erstmals am 02. September 2022

// Visual Storytelling Kompaktkurs //

Mit dem Visual Storytelling Kompaktkurs knüpfen wir an das Format an, mit dem "Abenteuer Reportagefotografie" 2020 begonnen hat: Kleine Gruppe, große Wirkung.

Vier Live-Abende, praxisnah, persönlich – für alle, die mit ihren Bildern wieder echte Geschichten erzählen wollen.

Jetzt anmelden unter: https://www.abenteuer-reportagefotografie.de/visual-storytelling-kompaktkurs

// Du fragst, wir antworten //

Im Podcast sollst du zu Wort kommen!

Hast du Fragen, spannende Themen oder einfach Gedanken, die du schon immer mal loswerden wolltest? Dann schreib uns!

Unser Q&A-Format lebt von deinen Beiträgen – und wir freuen uns riesig, deine Fragen zu beantworten.

Egal, ob du Tipps brauchst, neugierig auf unsere Meinungen bist oder einfach eine lustige Anekdote erzählen möchtest – dein Feedback ist herzlich willkommen!

Schick uns deine Fragen & Feedback per Mail an: mail@abenteuer-reportagefotografie.de und sei Teil einer unserer nächsten Folgen.

Keine Frage ist zu klein, zu groß oder zu verrückt – wir freuen uns auf deine Ideen!

// Werbung //

Mit neuem Konzept ist der GATE7-Podcast nun der Podcast der interaktiven Lernplattform “Abenteuer Reportagefotografie”. Hier dreht sich alles um visuelles Storytelling in der Street- und Reportagefotografie.

Thomas B. Jones und ich helfen dir, mit deinen Bildern spannende Geschichten zu erzählen - ob in der Familie, in der Freizeit oder auf Reisen. Lerne, wie du die Bilder machst, die dich und andere begeistern.

Es erwarten dich:

Live-Webinare
Exklusive Podcasts
Fotografie-Geschichte: Was du von den großen Meistern lernen kannst.
Regelmäßige Aufgaben mit ausführlichem Feedback
Videokurse
Eine aktive Community auf Discord für den direkten Austausch

Kostenlose Probemitgliedschaft

Wirf selbst einen Blick hinter die Kulissen unseres exklusiven Mitgliederbereichs und stöbere in den Inhalten.

Du kannst „Abenteuer Reportagefotografie“ eine Woche lang kostenlos und unverbindlich im Rahmen einer Probemitgliedschaft testen.

Mit unserem Newsletter bleibst du immer auf dem Laufenden.

Aktuelle Workshop-Termine findest du hier: https://shop.abenteuer-reportagefotografie.de/

Unser Buch: "Mit Bildern Geschichten erzählen: Wie du Storytelling gezielt in deiner Fotografie einsetzt" (dPunkt-Verlag)

Du hast Fragen oder Feedback? Dann schreib uns gerne – wir freuen uns, von dir zu hören: mail@abenteuer-reportagefotografie.de

// Danke sagen //

Der "Abenteuer Reportagefotografie"-Podcast ist kostenfrei und wird es auch immer bleiben. Ich freue mich, wenn ich dir Inspiration für deine Kamera-Abenteuer biete.

Falls du Danke sagen möchtest, kannst du mir per PayPal eine Spende zukommen lassen. Oder du schaust auf meiner Amazon-Wunschliste vorbei. Dort habe ich Dinge hinterlegt, mit denen du mir eine Riesenfreude machen würdest.

Herzlichen Dank!

// Hinweis //

*Bei einigen der Links in den Shownotes handelt es sich um sogenannte Affiliate-Links. Wenn du die verlinkten Produkte kaufst, nachdem du auf den Link geklickt hast, erhalte ich eine kleine Provision direkt vom Händler dafür.

Du zahlst bei deinem Einkauf nicht mehr als sonst, hilfst mir aber dabei, diese Webseite für dich weiter zu betreiben.

Ich freue mich, wenn ich dir Inspiration für deine Kamera-Abenteuer biete.

Transkript

And the good thing with black and white, I really don't like, the reason I take a lot of pictures in bad weather, because nobody goes out in bad weather and it's the most rewarding pictures. And when you're in the sunshine, it's too much sun, I don't like that. And so in black and white, it's more dramatic even when the weather is bad. Music. Welcome to a new Gate 7 podcast episode, or rather to an old one, because I'm taking a little creative break right now. Gate 7 is on vacation. Well, it's not quite like that either. The exact opposite is actually the case, because what worked great at the beginning of the year, I'm doing again now. A quick look back, in February 2023 I was together with Thomas Jones, with whom I also did adventure reportage photographie mache, ein Monat lang auf Kuba, genauer gesagt in Havanna. Ähnlich wie die Zeit bei Pia Parolin an der Côte d'Azur im Sommer 2022. Wo Thomas und ich unter anderem intensiv am Feinschliff des Manuskripts für unser mittlerweile im D-Punkt Verlag erschienen Buch mit Bildern Geschichten, erzählen gearbeitet haben, haben wir auf den Straßen Havannas jede Menge Reportagen fotografiert und Street Photography gemacht. Davon haben wir I already told you in detail, we came back with many stories and pictures that have flowed into webinars, podcasts, videos and what else in the past weeks and months. Take a look and listen to it again, especially on the YouTube channel of Thomas Jones you will find numerous videos. Yes, this time Thomas unfortunately stayed at home and I made my way to Cuba on my own. I will spend a month in Havana, throw out the fish again and see what I can find for motifs and stories all around the Malecon. A creative retreat in Cuba's capital. I am already very excited about the meeting and the pictures. And yes, Cuba is known for a lot, but not for its extremely fast internet. That's why I've already made a few episodes out of the archive so that you don't have to give up on content here in the Gate7 Podcast. And as I said, I will of course not lie lazy in the sun and drink Cuba Libre, but also take photos diligently. I promise you that. And then there will definitely be a lot of new exciting stories afterwards. And who knows, maybe there will be a photo trip to Cuba at some point. In any case, you can write to me if you plan to travel to Cuba. I am happy to pass on my contacts to local guides who can certainly help you to look even more behind the scenes in Cuba's capital. But before we dare to take the big leap and maybe someday start a photo trip to Cuba, we will first go back to European abroad in 2024. Next to our Street Photography Workshop in Hamburg, right in front of the Photopia. More precisely, on October 9, 2024, we will go to Helsinki and Lisbon again in 2024. I have just returned from Lisbon. At the beginning of November, a workshop was held there for the first time. The workshop was quickly booked and we had perfect conditions and a lot of fun. That was a great group and I'm already looking forward to repeating the whole thing next year. But you shouldn't underestimate Helsinki either, it's definitely worth a visit. I myself lived in Finland for a long time and I'm always looking forward to going back there, especially to Helsinki. For me it is a wonderful city, located directly by the sea or rather by the water and with a very special atmosphere, especially in the summer when the workshop takes place at the end of July. I'm just looking forward to discovering the city together with you. Helsinki is definitely a city that has a lot of charm and a lot of flair and it's definitely worth being discovered. If that sounds interesting to you, feel free to check out the show notes. There you will find the clickable links with further information about our workshops and you can do it directly if you want to on the website under www.abenteuer-reportagefotografie.de. Abenteuer Reportage Fotografie is the project that converts the content of Gate 7 into practice, so to speak. A project that I do together with Thomas Jones and in which all that I discuss with my guests here in the podcast is implemented into practice. It is being used in different forms, in different formats, like webinars, podcasts, workshops, everything very interactive. There is now a very active community, where we are now over 100 participants. We exchange everything about street photography, reporting and visual storytelling. If you feel like it, feel free to stop by. You can find the link in the show notes, in your podcast app or, as I said, directly on the website abenteuer-reportage-fotografie.de. And as I said, at this point, I think the right time has come for me, after a turbulent year with many lectures, many workshops, many actions around Gate 7 and adventure report photography, to take a breath, to take a break and then to gain momentum again. Maybe it's a good opportunity for you to take a closer look at the previous episodes of Gate 7, and to look forward to the new interviews that will come in the coming weeks and months. On the one hand, of course, what I experience in Cuba, and I also have to work on what I did photographically in Colombia over a year ago, I have, as well as on the last trips to Helsinki and Lisbon, there is still a lot in the archive. Then Cuba is added and in mid-January it goes back to my second home, to Argentina. So a lot that is on the note. If you happen to be in Buenos Aires at the beginning of 2024 and feel like an individual photo tour, then feel free to contact me. From January there will be fresh episodes, but in the meantime there is no radio silence on the channel. I went deep into the archive and looked for a few episodes that are worth being broadcast again for one or the other reason. In addition, the number of listeners has increased significantly in the past few months. In short, Gate7 will soon reach the 1 million mark when it comes to downloads. I am very happy about that. Many thanks to you out there, the one who regularly listens to Gate 7. I am happy about that. And of course thanks to everyone who discovered and subscribed to Gate 7 Because you are also one of them. Then you joined when there were already over 350 episodes. And probably you haven't yet heard all the archive episodes. In this respect, this episode is definitely new to you. This time it is Ragnar Axelsson, an Icelandic photographer, whom we met at the end of the media day of the photo festival La Gassili Baden Photo last year. We are Ulrike Schumann and Thomas Pöhler from the Photo Podcast and Thomas Jones. Together we conducted this interview in Baden. For decades, Ragnar Axelsson has been photographing in Arctic regions. There, the Icelander has experienced the consequences of climate change for man and nature. His pictures of rough beauty show a world that is in the concept of disappearing forever. Yes, an interview that inspired me a lot and I think it's definitely worth showing it here again. I wish you a lot of fun when you hear the interview for the first time today, But even if you've heard it once. It's still something new that you discover and perceive that you didn't notice the first time. In any case, it's worth listening to it again. Before we start, a very short request at this point. I would be very happy if you would do exactly what I did, namely to go deep into the archive and see which episodes you may not have heard yet and choose your favorite episode and share it on social media, Facebook or Instagram. With your friends, with your acquaintances who are also interested in photography and storytelling, that would mean a lot to me and also help to make this podcast a little more well-known. In the last few weeks and months, as I said, I have been able to notice a significant increase in listeners, which I am very, very and you want to help and support the work that I do to reach even more people who are interested in visual storytelling, then I would be very grateful if you would share a little bit of advertising and a little bit of the drum for Gate 7. Now let's get straight into the interview with Ragnar Axelsson. Have fun! Images displayed in this way here? Oh, that's an honor. That's a great honor, and yeah, it's always, you know, to see it that big outside, it's like kind of a shock, saying, wow, did I do that? You know, so it was, it was, it's great. I have also had in galleries, so it's different a little bit you know, when you're inside with the frames and all that, But this is great. You've always been a photographer who's put much emphasis and importance on seeing the pictures printed as well. During the research for this interview, I came across one anecdote that you told that once you went to New York to see the pictures of W. Eugene Smith on the wall in a gallery so to learn about his printing technique and then you went back to the darkroom trying to well put into practice what you learned from him. Can you tell a little bit what it was about this trip and also what this photographer means to you? Oh he's one of the greatest photographer ever I think. There are many great ones and he was great and I kind of was watching his work and I wanted to see how he was printing, because I grew up kind of in a dark room. I was always in a dark room. My father made a dark room for me, so I was always there. And it was a magical moment seeing a picture come to life in the developer. And so I wanted to see his work. And I called some gallery. I don't remember where it was. Where it was? It was in New York. And I told my wife, I want to go to New York just to see how he prints. And she was against it, so, but I went anyway, told her, she thought I was up in the highlands. Went for a day and back the next day, just to see how he was printing. And I was put on a mask and white gloves to see the prints, which was beautiful. And I got straight back home and... And started using ferrocyanate, which is a very poison thing, actually. So I was practicing on that, and it was, you know, for a long time I was practicing, printing like he did, because I liked how he did it. There's a film about him now, Minamata, played by Johnny Depp. And so you see a little bit into his life, and he was kind of crazy, but I think sometimes you have to be a little bit crazy to do what you do. That's a good jumping off point that you need to be a little bit crazy as a photographer to do this kind of images. You also photographed in extreme conditions, very cold conditions in the Arctic. Before we come to that, I'd like to stay with WG Eugene Smith for a while. But apart from his printing technique, was there anything else that you took away from him about his approach to photography, his style of photography, of storytelling? Yeah it was, he got so much into everything he was doing and I think that is very important to work like that. So because, especially when you photograph, what I, what's my passion photographing in in the Arctic was it's easy to go and sail around an iceberg in a rubber boat and take pictures of an iceberg and go back home. But I think you have to go into the story and into people's life and stay with them. And so I did that. I stayed with them on the sea ice in a tent and got to know them, gained their trust to be able to photograph their life and ask them questions about. What the future will hold for them. So then he really got into what was happening. They were... We are reading in books about what's happening, but they are walking on the pages in the book. So it's a huge knowledge they have. So that was the thing I wanted to get. And that's what he did. He did really go into all the stories he did and it shows in his photographs. Was it very difficult to get in contact with the people? Not really. Sometimes though it took some time and it spreads around when I get to know one, then another one. And so when I go to another place they sometimes contact and then, oh he's okay. So it takes some time to be a part of the group. And it has to be, it's a little bit like sometimes to break the ice between us just to joke a little. and so they feel that they can trust you. I think that's important that, I mean, show them respect, then you can get everywhere. And you lived with them, and so they knew you as well? Yeah, we lived on the sea ice in a tent, and they were hunting seals and narwhal and polar bears, and in the afternoon we were getting cold, We were warming up the tent and we played cards and I lost all the time. They cheated. So I lost my gear but I had to make a deal with them, keep my gear and my clothes on until then. So that kind of made us all laugh and they were happy with it. They needed it more than I did when I was leaving. So it was kind of, it built up a great friendship and I still have great friendship with them. How long did you live with them? It was up to five weeks sometimes in tents and small cabins. But usually to go like that now is like being not more than maybe two weeks because when you stay on the ice you look to the left, there's only ice, and you look to the right, there's only ice and icebergs of course. So you're taking the same photographs sometimes over and over again but you never know what happens. And so that is... keep your concentration if you're not too long, otherwise you get... you don't know if there's anybody alive in the world sometimes because you're out of reach from everything. You once said that when you started out as a photographer, all your colleagues, everybody went to Africa and you turned the other direction, you went to the Nordic, you're from Iceland. And so what other reason was there to focus on that region whereas everybody else seemed to be looking another way? I read the stories from great arctic explorers. There was a Danish guy, Knut Rasmussen and Peter Freuchen. They wrote different books. From the same journey, they wrote two books. One was boring and one was hilarious because he added the funny parts happening in his book. Peter Freuchen, he was kind of like a monk cousin. But the stories, they were true in a way, though, what he wrote, and I was so excited going, seeing this kind of life, so, and it was a dream since I was just a young boy, and so I went, and it's still ongoing actually. I've been going like 50 times or something. You grew up on a farm, a very remote place. How did that impact you growing up? What was your childhood like, your relation to nature, to the people? No, when I, I was eight years old the first time I went. I was there for about eight years, six, eight years, eight summers, and there were no bridges to pass the glacial rivers. I had to be flown in by an aircraft, and I felt like the whole world was mine. I was 10 years old on a horse. I had a white horse, and I had to measure the rivers, glacial rivers, because all the people on the farm, and there were five brothers, two sisters, they were scientists, and they were measuring the glaciers and the rivers and always writing it down, taking the weather every day. So I had to pass a glacial river on a horse, 10 years old, to measure the next one. And I was alone, and I felt like it was great. Today you would be taken away from your parents if you do that. But it made me kind of stronger, you know, and being, a little bit more brave to do things, like going to the Arctic. I'm not a brave man, but I just felt like I could do more. So that was, and I saw the glaciers were retreating. And I thought, I photographed the people and their environment and the farmers, and I thought, this is all gonna change. So it started early on, at the age of 10, And the best pictures, it's in a book that I did in an exhibition in Munich, which I took when I was 10. It's probably the best pictures I've ever taken. So there was no improvement. But that's started it all actually, to photograph people in their environment and documenting life. It's my passion in a way. You've stayed with that theme now throughout your career. How important is that in your eyes for a photographer to find something that he really has, well, a theme that he knows about, that he feels and that comes from within? It feels, how do I say it? It's just something that happens inside of you. You just feel like this is, it's like writing a song. you write certain kind of songs, you don't try to write other types of songs, you stick with working from your heart, that's what I did. And it was like, yeah, I couldn't take it out, I had to do this, I did a lot of things, I worked on newspaper, I did sports and everything, and it was fun, it was great, but my mind was always on this documentary work, and I think that today, photography has always been important, it's even more important than today to show people how life on earth is and the changes that are happening. And if you take, for instance, photography, how it is, it's kind of fighting for its life in a way because it has changed so drastically in 10, 15 years. And today, the most popular ones are on Instagram. It's little girls and guys wiggling their ass in front of a waterfall. It has nothing to do with life on earth. It's just a funny picture, but they're very highly rated, which is someday they will find out it's not. I think you told us you were there about 50 times on photo tours. Normally, a big deal is the preparation for such a trip, but is there something like routine for you so you don't have to do a lot of preparation nowadays? I do a lot of preparation all the time, but at first I didn't know how to go, I was freezing. But when you go there, you have to always... I do rely on them, I trust them, the hunters, the skilled ones. I pick the ones that I know that are good, because there are good hunters and there are not so good hunters. But my friends are very good ones. And I prepare now that I did for years. I go swimming in the ocean every day, no matter how the weather is. I've fallen in the ocean in Greenland in crevices three or four times and that's cold, I can tell you. And so I had to be training a little bit like that and I think it heals everything going in the ocean and it makes you more fit and it makes you prepared if something happens because sometimes you had to put up a tent and warm it up and dry our clothes before we could continue, because we were all wet and freezing. So, ice sometimes cracks and breaks up. So, we have to find a way through to get back to safety. So, yeah, it's also a mentality. You have to keep your head straight and just be afraid afterwards. Ha ha ha! Have there been any situations where you were in danger photographing in that harsh conditions. I never thought about it that way but when thinking back it was probably you know because we were sometimes like. I was in a little village in East Greenland when there was a storm warning, we shouldn't go out, and my friend Hunter living in the next village and I saw a guy with the binoculars looking out on the sea ice. And I knew it was his brother. He's my friend's brother. I never met him before and I came to him and he was very angry looking in a way when he saw me. And I just asked him, Can I take one picture of you? Yes, you can take one. So I took one and he said, are you finished? I said, one, and then he laughed. You know, it broke the ice between us and he was telling me that he was looking for polar bears. But I told him there's a storm warning so nobody should get out, but he said, if we see one, we might try to get one. And I asked him, can you let me know? I'm in that little cabin over there. Can you let me know if you see one? 10 minutes later, he came running. there are five polar bears, and my brother is going out. Hjalmar is one of the greatest hunters in Greenland, and I asked him when he came to the little village where I was, can I come with you? And he said, we're not allowed to take you with us. So I looked him in the eye, I said, well, I'm coming with you. And it was the longest 30 seconds in my life. And he said stay behind so I'm not seeing you so you can so I can I will say that you just followed and so we followed we ran like seven eight kilometers and followed the polar bears and he got one and we had to there's one picture on the exhibition here this little tiny guy and you see the rough eyes and when we. When he shot the polar bear, he was trying to escape and he fell on the ice. And he was reaching for more bullets. They had fallen out of his pocket when we were running. So we had no bullets and four polar bears close by, which we did not know where they were. But his brother came, so we were probably in danger for 20 minutes, something like that. But usually they run away. So, and that polar bear that was on the ice, Hjalmar asked me, you have to stop taking pictures and help me drag it to the safe ice. Ten minutes later, where the Volvo was, the ice was open water because the current was so strong and we could see the storm coming from the mountains. So it took us four hours to fight in the storm getting back to safety and the ice was breaking up and it was a moment when Hjalmar said, are you insured? And I said, no, I forgot. And he said that, well, if we get a helicopter, they will rescue us, but you will have to pay for the helicopter. And I didn't have any money to pay for a helicopter, so I told him, you take the helicopter, I walk home. And that's another 30 seconds of, with the long ones. And he said, we go together. And we went back together, and when we came to the village where I was, in my cabin, and he put his arms around me after 30 years of friendship, And he said, well, I didn't know you could be that tough. I wasn't tough. I was terrified. And I told him, I have pictures that I'm not sure you want the world to see. Because I don't want to harm you, do any harm to you. And he sat in silence for a few seconds and he said, I want the world to see my life. I can't go to the shop like you can. I have to hunt to feed my family. And so it was a great moment. And I asked him if I could give you one wish, what would it be? And he said, give me 25 years back in time when the sea ice was safe. So you learn from them a lot. And you want to, when you photograph them, you want to show the world a life that most of us don't know anything about. Because yeah, it's a beautiful life. but it's fading away in a way. Yeah. It's a life that is disappearing and it's also a life that not many people are able to witness themselves. So this is your job kind of as a photographer. But what you've told us just now, it's a story, it's adventure. How much more is photography for you apart from taking the pictures in the moment. Experiencing all this being out there on the ice, chasing polar bears, feeling the cold, everything that comes around. I mean the pressing of the shutter button is just a moment, it's important, but how important is the rest of it? It's very important. A moment for me is, I grew up with, my father gave me books of painters, so I was looking at paintings. I can't paint, so I had to take pictures, and he gave me magazines. He ordered from, I grew up with Stern magazine and old Life magazines. That he had collected and gave to me. And I remember the great German photographers, Ulrich Mach and Helge Dweyer, he was in the Arctic. So that was my heroes in photography in a way. Clicking the moment, like in a painting, they paint like expression of people's faces and certain positions. It's the same in photography. You have to catch the right moment for me and the expression on people's faces and things like that. But when working on the pictures is also like using Smith in the darkroom. You create it. And I do it in black and white. I like black and white. Much better than color. So it's all the way to finish the picture like that. Make the atmosphere in it and feeling you had when you took it. It's my opinion on it. In documentary work, you cannot, I just do what I can do in a darkroom. Nothing more. Because that's a very strict rule for me. You cannot add or take anything out in documentary work. You can do it if you're doing advertisement of some artwork, if you like an artwork, but not in documentary. You mentioned how important black and white photography is to you. And I found one quote where you think we're referring to digital photography and the process of turning a color image to monochrome, black and white, that it hurts your heart when people do that. Yeah, well, I do that, but it's always wondering, It's always, what hurts my heart is that, am I cheating doing this? I took it in color, so I bought like a monochrome, so I can't do it. But I sometimes, I always do it when I do a color, on a color camera, I turn it to black and white right away. It's been taking me years to say, you're not cheating, you're not cheating, it's just the way you want to do it. But it probably is, I mean, it's in color. But the tree is in color and you take a black and white picture. Isn't that cheating anyway? It's the proximity to science. So you feel like this. Yeah, I mean, you want to be doing it. You want to be honest. And do you see in black and white before you take the picture? Yes, yes, yes. I even had sunglasses that looked like the black and white. A lot of photographers who like black and white, well, they see it in black and white, although it's in color. And the good thing with black and white, I really don't like, the reason I take a lot of pictures in bad weather, because nobody goes out in bad weather and it's the most rewarding pictures. And in the sunshine it's too much sun, I never like that. And so in black and white it's more dramatic even when the weather is bad. You've talked about how challenging these conditions are and what they do mentally to you. And I think they have also taken a physical toll on you. Yesterday, when you talked about your work, you were referring to some injury you have with your hand, I think. It froze. I've been freezing my toes and everything, my face, you know, many times. But my hands froze some three years ago, three, three and a half. I had two pairs of gloves. I took the outer part because I couldn't click anymore. I thought the camera was something wrong with it, but it was my fingers, so I took it off for 10 minutes and it froze. This one still hurts every day. And the others are kind of numb, you know, the fingertips. They were all white and then black. But that's OK. I mean, they're going to be fine. It doesn't bother me, you know. The only thing is it does a good thing, my wife don't allow me to clean up the dishes because I break them. So there's always something good about it. Always look on the positive side. Yeah, but that was my stupidity actually, to take the gloves off, but I was so excited getting the picture, and I got it, and when I look at it I love the picture, but I also, Oh there you are. It's a hate-love-hate relationship, with one photographer. Are there any other photographs that that stick out that you connect with a special story like that or an experience you had making the picture? I tell stories behind pictures at home and on the internet and the TV every Sunday morning. Between, and when I see, I can't forget what I was doing five minutes ago, you know, but if I see a photograph that I took 20 years ago, and I look at it, and I think, I remember the whole day, you know. So there's a lot of photographs that I. You know, have some feelings about and stories behind that are really stuck with me. And they're kind of photographs that become my favorites in a way because of the story behind them. But it's hard to do that because when you're editing like a work or something, you have to throw out some pictures that you probably like because we're making books, they don't fit in. And it's very hard sometimes. You said every Sunday you talk about a picture on TV. Is it an ongoing thing or what? It's an ongoing thing. It's been now for one and a half year. It's on a webpage. It was a news agency and they have a lot of sections. So this is one of it. It's on Sunday morning. And then they cut it together and play it on TV on Monday evenings for like three months and then it's a pause and then we start again. And I really had fun doing it because at least though, people get to understand a little bit what we are doing because a photograph is just a photograph for people to see and nobody really thinks what's behind it. You had to go there, you have to freeze your ass off, you know, and do a lot of things to get it. And a photograph to most people is just a photograph, but now when they hear the stories, you get a different view on it. So I really was happy about that, that people say that you're not just a photographer, you're doing something that probably might matter to the world in the future, and you are freezing a moment in someone's life that will last forever. And you never know when a photograph becomes an iconic photograph, like the little girl running from an aplomb bomb in Vietnam, and Minamata, Eugene Smith, Tomoko in the bath. It's beautiful photographs. It's like legendary work. Do you remember any situations, are there any images you couldn't get and you remember and say, ah, I lost it? Always, yeah. Yeah, there's, I think it's sometimes getting worse now because I'm trying to, I'm doing all eight Arctic countries now, I'm like a journey through them, and I'm probably 60% done, but I was going to Siberia and the war broke out so I couldn't go, and I went straight to Greenland, and I didn't know that, I had been trying to get a a photograph of an old man living, he's the last man in that village called Cap Hope. And I never got him, actually. So I went and I drove to his village with a friend of mine, Jelmer, he's a stock lad. And he was there. And he was leaving the village. He was going to hospital and he was leaving for good. And he had 20 brothers and sisters. The two of them left, he had four wives or girlfriends, they're all dead. And he sees ghosts, tiny little hidden people, and he's terrified of them. They rescued his father, he said, when he was young, on the ice. And he did something to them that they didn't like, so he was afraid of them. And good stories. and when he was leaving, I photographed him looking back and he said, there's no hope in Cap Hope anymore. It was the last night standing in the village and houses are crumbling down, filled with snow and all that, and I asked the woman in the village, do you believe his stories about the ghosts? And she said, no, we didn't. But he showed us little kamek boots that was found on his loft. Nobody knows how to make them. So we started maybe he's right whether he's right or not the story is good, so I write those stories down and. I write them down just to keep with a give them a voice and tell this a part of their life So it adds something to the picture and this is a moment that I got that I had always missed I wanted to get I missed he was gone I've been there many many times and I was always like, oh he left one hour ago. So Finally, I got there and he was there so it sometimes comes back That you're trying to get hmm, You did a book about It's about dogs, arctic heroes and in the title it's not about men, it's about dogs. So that implies that dogs have a very special meaning for the people living out there. They're not just dogs, they have their personality and they are vital for the people, for their survival. And you also told some beautiful stories about particular dogs or something that the Inuit and the people you met out there, the hunters, they told you about their dogs. Can you share some of those stories and tell what's the importance of the dogs for the people? The Greenlandic Sled Dog is probably among the oldest dog breed in the world. I think they have found bones in Greenland 7,500 years old, something like that. And the culture has been there 4,500 years and the Inuits living there now is about 1,100 years. And without the Greenlandic there wouldn't be any inuits. And the stories they told me, how special dog, they're different characters. And you have stupid ones, you have clever ones, and you have bad guys and good guys. And I was trying to learn to see it in their eyes. So I had clapped the wrong dogs. But the clever ones, they are really, Clever, and the stories they told me as I wrote in the book, how they took them home when all things, well, it was over, they didn't see, they couldn't, like one, to make a long story short, there was a guy, he had taken his dogs once, a certain route, and when he was getting back home, there was a storm and he couldn't see his hands, and the dog was just all low, and they found a way in the storm. They smelled their way. The leader dog was such a clever dog, two of them. And so there are many, many stories like that, but they didn't want to tell those stories. I had to drag it out of them. Like my friend Ulle, who told me a story about Kendo, which means black dog, and we named our publishing company after that dog because the story was so beautiful. And Ulle told me about, it was his best friend, and it was a beautiful story, but he was not gonna tell me stories. He said, they're going with me to the grave. And I had been there for a week talking to him, And the day before I left the village, I told him, well, you have to write those stories down for your kids and grandchildren and your ancestors because it's beautiful stories and I know there are beautiful stories you have. And he said, oh, I'll think about it. And next day he said, I'll tell you the stories. He told me a story about Kandu, which is in the book. And when he had finished the story, he cried. And he said, I'll tell you more story next time. There was no next time. He died three months later. So, but I got a few stories from him and they are in the book. And I promised him that I would only run it in the book, and in the book it is to honor him and his legacy and story. But the dogs are really, really great heroes, actually, alongside with the hunters. They need each other. So many stories you heard, and you're documenting a world that is slowly disappearing now. And with that, there's disappearing the wisdom of the people who've lived in these conditions for so many years. Is there anything that you've learned from these people about life, about approaching life, or? Oh, yeah, I learned a lot. I learned I'm being like humble towards this kind of life because when I came first, I was kind of, I was a young man, kind of arrogant thinking about it and saying that, well, we the Vikings, we could beat you with bare hands, you know, easily. Staying, so we make a bet, who's gonna stay out longer with your bare hands. I was five minutes, he was 25 minutes. So it was like you learn to be humble towards and respect that, and respect other things everywhere, you know, whatever, life on Earth, you know. It made me rethink everything. And they have a lot of knowledge. I have a lot of friends, scientists, and I always urge them to say, like one of my friends, scientist, said, you have to learn from him. And he went with me and said, thank you, I learned a lot, because they know a lot of things about what's happening on our planet and climate change and all that. But those guys know a lot. But the first impression that I was in Thule, I think it was 86, I passed a guy's house and he was always saying something in Greenlandic, which I didn't understand. So on the fifth day I asked the teacher in the village, can you translate what he's saying? And he said those sentences, these words, there's something wrong, it shouldn't be like this, the big guy is sick. He was talking about the Greenlandic ice cap, the whole ice cap, and he felt it. He was an old man. Yes, he knew. And he saw there was things were changing. I'm not blaming you or me for what's happening, but I leave that to scientists to tell us, but I think it's important for me and everybody to document these kind of changes in life. It supports what they are saying, maybe, and it also shows others that there is life, and this kind of life is changing. It will be, the young generation doesn't want to be hunters anymore. They want to live a different kind of life. So, and the dogs population, there were 30,000 dogs, some 10 years, 11 years ago, now there's about 10,000, 11,000 left. So it shows how it's going down, too. Slowly, going back, the population of the dogs, the hunters, the ones that look for other ways of life, are there any other signs that you've witnessed over the decades that you've been going back and forth, how it has changed? Yeah, you see the glaciers retreating like in Iceland you see them they retreat somewhere hundred meters a year. You see a thinning I saw that as a kid and They have been smaller before they've been bigger, but this is happening now our planet is in that phase of this is ongoing and and, And in Greenland, I flew with my friend scientist up to Thule, flew up all the glacier, and when we were heading back from Karnak down to Ilulissat, we were flying above the glacier, and it was all gray. And I say, this is, I've never seen this before. It's all gray, it was slush. And NASA, it was the same time, and NASA took the satellite photograph showing 97% of the glacier melting, which is also a phenomenon that happens 150 years, you know, every 150 years, but we were there, above when it was happening. So seeing that was kind of scary, and all the blue lakes, thousands of them, on the surface of glacier, that's something that, the numbers of blue lakes are increasing, actually. So it's melting. I imagine you've been asked this question many times, but doing these kind of photographs, what is it that you try to make an impact with, Or do you think you can make an impact with your pictures? Or what is it that you'd like for people to take away that look at your pictures? That's a good question. I just want to show the world, or those who see it, what's happening. You get hit, I get hit on a lot by people saying, this is not happening, it's bullshit. But they've never been there. So I just wanted to photograph and make books. We made our own company because we didn't want to go on our knees to some publishing company, didn't understand it either. So we made our own, or we'll just do it. So we did all the books we did, based on all. And then we did Glacier. We did Arctic Heroes and Where the World is Melting, which is in collaboration with Ketter in Germany, a great publisher. And so in the exhibition in Munich, we did that catalog book, Where the World is Melting. it shows places where it is melting or changing. So I want to just... At least make people think about it. That's the reason we want it. It's a passion, something, I don't know, it's something that's called stupidity, being so stubborn doing it, I think. But I think it has to be done and documented. And it has to be show, be aware of how people live and show people in the pictures, not just iceberg floating around. They're gonna be there for a thousand years floating like that, that people will be different and life will be different. When you look into the future, what's your scenario? What are you projecting from now into the future? Do you see any signs of hope that we might learn what we've done wrong in the past and be able to correct course? I'm always optimistic about it. I hope so, but sometimes you think like my friend's scientists say that the Icelandic glaciers will disappear in 150, 200 years. And even if you would flip the switch now, they would still melt. And so that's a scary thing to hear. But I wanted to, like, I think every one of us has to do maybe something. I'm not saying we should stop the wheels turning around the planet, because, but you have to say with your grandchildren and when they ask you, grandfather, grandmother, why didn't you do anything? You know, you leave it for us to solve it. So I think at least being, we all have to continue living, but it would be stupid to ignore it, not to, you know, realizing that if there's something you can do, you should do it. I recently talked with Nick Brand about this topic as well, and I asked him a question if he has the feeling that like before COVID my impression was that, The climate debate was very high on the agenda, also with Greta Thunberg and this movement that she started. But then COVID hit and everything went back a little bit on the agendas of the politicians. Now we have the war in the Ukraine, so many other crises. And he rightly mentioned that this is a very European view on the thing that in the US, nobody was talking about climate before COVID even, and this is right now with a new bill passed by the president that it's been on the agenda. So these different perspectives and what's your observation of the state we are right now, the awareness, the global awareness of this problem and the ability to fight it? Yeah, well, those things like the war, it takes over everything in the world. COVID took over like thinking about it, but I think what's happening doesn't go away. I believe that the Arctic will be, in coming years, the biggest issue on the planet anyway because that is the biggest threat. Of course, it's a nuclear threat, I mean, because of war, that's a big threat, but the other way, if nothing like that happens, then this is the big threat in the Arctic and all eyes will be there, I think, It's melting four times faster than everything, or warming four times faster than anywhere else on the planet. And I've been like walking on those pages for nearly four years, and I've seen how the ice is thinning on the place where we were hunting. Where we used to be safe, it's not safe anymore. It's very thin and you have to be very careful sometimes, and sometimes you can't even go out. So when you see it, at least, I mean, it's like blinking of an eye in Earth's history. What is the Earth? 4.6 billion years old. So it's like blinking of an eye with this time period we are living on. But at least it is happening. I wish it wasn't, but that's what I've seen. Right. Yesterday we went around here looking at the exhibitions of all the other photographers. You've been there as well, looking at the work of your colleagues. What's the impression you took away from this day yesterday? Are there any projects, any images that stuck out for you? There's many. I knew most of them. I looked through a lot of other photographers' work and I have a huge problem with myself that I cannot envy others. It's making me happy seeing somebody doing something great and it's a drive. So I see, and I see a great photograph, oh, I want to do it like that. So, and then I take a picture, and the idea comes from this picture, but you can't see it. It was just something that clicked in the head. It's like writing a song. You hear a good song, and you want to make a better song. Or try to. And I really enjoyed seeing it, and I want to go today and see it again. So it's a lot of great work they've done. You can always take away something from other colleagues. I knew one mentor of you was Mary Ellen Mark, you mentioned. Can you tell the story how you got to know her and why she is so particularly important? It's a passion she had. And she died in 2015. I came to her, she was my teacher in Florida. And everybody, the first school day, everybody was to bring some fruit or something. And at the time, Iceland didn't have beer, so I brought six pack of beer in the morning for breakfast. And she laughed, and that's just crazy. And we became very good friends. And she and her husband, Martin Bell, he's a filmmaker. They used to work with Attenborough. And they came on holiday every summer to Iceland. And this was a passion and a drive she had. Even when she was... When she died, she was working a few hours before. She was a wonderful woman, sadly missed, and one of the greatest photographers ever. Beautiful woman. You did a workshop with her? Yeah, and then she came to Iceland. We had a lot of workshops and holidays, and we helped her when she was there, and they were great. And I did learn a lot from her. She kicked my ass constantly and said, When I was on the call, I took a photograph, I said, why didn't you take more pictures? Well, I was finished. You're never finished. And when I took one photograph in Greenland, I remember her words. I was heading back home after two weeks on the sea ice in very cold conditions, and I was trying to capture the hunter sitting, I was behind him on the dog sled, and I thought I had the picture, so I was freezing, and I put my cameras down, and I could hear her voice, keep on taking pictures. And I was like, Mary Ellen, do you know how cold it is here? And he replied, I don't care. Take more pictures. And I took it up, and I took the photograph. I thought I had the picture of him, and the picture that I thought I had was not a good one. The picture came just seconds after. So I listened to what she said, and I always, you know, it was a good thing to learn. Beautiful story and the importance of having a mentor. You had the luck, the opportunity to meet such a great photographer, but sometimes it can also be photographers you've never met or some mentors that are this voice, it's this voice in your head as you described, that when you're in this situation you remember something and then... Yeah, it happens all the time. And what's other photographers like? There's great great photographer, James McAuley's great, Don McCullin, I met him. And he was actually James McAuley's mentor, I think. In a way, James McAuley told once that he was the one he really liked, his photographs. And I met Don, he's a legend, he's a great guy. He's an old man now, and now he's photographing, he photographed war, Vietnam, and all that, and he's now photographing landscapes, and it's his passion. When I get old in a hundred years, I want to do it the same. One other thing I'd like to touch on with you is that there's this debate about photography in this age now. What importance does photography or still photography have? What kind of impact it can make with a picture? And it's all very fleeting. You reference to these Instagrammers taking also pictures in your country and Icelands, which are just this snap moments that are quickly forgotten. And you as a photographer looking back on a work from decades. For me, the importance is there, like you might start, you take one picture and there's the context missing, but now you can look back and document a change that's been going on over decades, like this climate change. So if you give some advice to photographers starting out today, what is it that you would... Advise them from what you've learned over your career? I think it would be to follow your heart and believe in what you're doing. And for me now, I have now, what do you say, I have pictures that I can redo and see so that they have some meaning or they will show something that changes and stuff like that. And I think also just never go away from your own feelings of what you're doing and believe in it. It's hard, the road is gonna be bumpy, but it's rewarding when you get to the end of the road, whenever that is. And taking pictures for me, I never felt that I have a good photograph. I always trying to get it. So it's a lifetime's quest to go, and in the end, you might get it, you might not. But it's a drive to try to get a good photograph. My friend told me once, when we go together, we always get a good picture. I said, no, what did he say? Don't ever say that again. I never got a good picture. And I think you're through when you think you have a good picture. Then you just can stop. I mean, imagine the Beatles, if they just made Hard Day's Night and She Loves You, if they would have stopped then, they wouldn't be the Beatles today. They wouldn't remember. They always have to continue. And I would, and young photographers today is like, they're good ones, and they're also ones who take selfies of themselves, that's not. It's funny, but it's about nothing, you know. Wiggling your ass in front of a waterfall taking pictures of yourself, it's not, anyway, it's not great. Right. And photos change, like when you look back at photos you took 10 years ago, 20 years ago, and that the context has changed or your relationship to them, how do you see that, like your whole archive when you look at that, is your look at the pictures, the images, is it changing? or? Yeah, and so in a way sometimes, yeah. But sometimes I feel like I did better things, you know, we were doing films. When you went on a trip, it was like Christmas, waiting for opening up the parcels, you know, because you didn't know, you took it on film, you couldn't see the pictures as you can do now. So you never knew whether you got the moment or not. When you came back, it took a month to process the films, the negatives and see. And it was rewarding, so that was quite fun. But now you can see it instantly. I usually try not to watch it, I just continue. If you watch football match or handball match, you see photographers, they're all looking at the camera and they're missing the moment, so you have to concentrate on the moment, I think. But I try to change, but I always think that if you make a good rock song, why should you make a disco song if you're good making rock songs? It's the same, I'm not going to try to be anybody else or different. So I just try to stick with my own feelings all the time, how to make a picture. So you continue this path and in the years to come now you... Yeah, it was hard when you're doing black and white. I grew up in the dark, so I love black and white, but because you did some stories and nobody wants to publish them because they were in black and white. But it had to be very, I'm gonna stick with black and white, you know. But my friends were selling a lot, using colors, doing color work, but I think the black and white lives longer. You came into contact with photography at an early age. You borrowed the camera from your father when you were around 10 years old. So the camera has always been with you. Was there ever an idea of doing something else or dedicating your life to something else than photography? Yeah, I did learn to fly and to become a pilot, but there was no jobs for pilots when I finished. Very few hired. There's only Iceland there. So I just, yeah, and I think all my family is pilots, my brothers and nephews, everybody. so they envy me for my job. They're like bus drivers today, and I have done something that matters. They did too, but I still fly, so I use both. So it's more fun flying when you're not working as a pilot. So it's excitement all the time. You made the right decision. I hope so. Well, it's been fascinating listening to you, learning about your career, about your approach to photography and, well, thank you very much for taking the time. It's been an inspiring, fun conversation. Thank you for having me. Thank you very much. Just one more question. Is there any project you are right now planning or? Yeah, I'm working on the eight Arctic countries and traveling around all them. Russia, I cannot skip Russia out. I have been there four times and so I need a little more for that because Russia is such a big part of the Arctic. But also I'm now also doing the consequences somewhere else like wildfires, I wanna go do that. And I went to Africa recently coming from Sierra Leone, photographing where the ocean is taking houses, breaking them down because of the current, it's changing. So I'm trying to see the other side of it too. I like the cold better though. So hopefully you don't get a good photograph. You think it's good because it would mean you are stopping your work. So hopefully. I hope to get it one day. Music.