Behind the mountains

For over a quarter of a century the renowned documentary photographer Ragnar Axelsson has been venturing out with farmers rounding up sheep in Fjallabak, one of the most extraordinary natural wonders in the sub-polar Arctic, under all kinds of conditions - snowstorms, downpours and sunlit skies. In this wilderness, cascades of rhyolite scree, hot springs, glacial ice and mineral green slopes create a peculiar interplay between light and surface. Ragnar Axelsson has created a magnificent photographic collection that archives an Arctic people's struggle with the whims of nature, and portrays the social changes that have gradually eroded their age-old traditions. Against this surreal landscape, the people appear as visitors to a strange world. They've left their daily existence behind to become itinerants in the realm of myth where the past and present are no longer distinguishable.