Topic: Ragnar Axelsson - Last Days of the Arctic

[Late Developer]

An exhibition of Rangnar Axelsson's work will be at the Proud Gallery in Chelsea (16 Kings Road, London, SW3) between 26 January and 11 March 2012.

Not sure if it's free or paid entry - but I will definitely be going. Worth a "meet" of any London / SE (+ anyone who can make it) based FWs...??

[Late Developer]

Just got back from the exhibition. (It's 161 Kings Road, opposite Habitat).

Fantastic set of prints. They also have signed and unsigned copies of the book as well.

It's on until 11/03. I can definitely recommend it.

[Suzi Livingstone]

I went on the opening night so it was a bit packed but I concur, amazingly beautiful images. I was a little disappointed that they weren't printed on nicer paper, and I wasn't overly keen on the gallery itself (mind you it was packed to the rafters when I went, I expect its easier to see the prints usually). I would definitely get his book though.

[Late Developer]

I didn't ask about the paper, Suzi, but I wasn't as impressed with it as I was hoping. I suspect it was of the of the ink-jetty-squirty-droplet variety rather than the silver-creamy-lusciousness option. They were priced at around £1,100 to £1,300 (unframed) which seems quite a lot if they weren't hand printed on silver-laden, fibre-based paper - irrespective of the wondrousness of the photos.

That said, the gallery was empty apart from Lara and myself, so we got to have a good mooch round before I bought the book.

I took a couple of shots while I was in there. Hopefully, I'll have them process by this weekend.

[Suzi Livingstone]

I didn't ask about the paper, Suzi, but I wasn't as impressed with it as I was hoping. I suspect it was of the of the ink-jetty-squirty-droplet variety rather than the silver-creamy-lusciousness option. They were priced at around £1,100 to £1,300 (unframed) which seems quite a lot if they weren't hand printed on silver-laden, fibre-based paper - irrespective of the wondrousness of the photos.

That was my bugbear and I grumbled about it on the way home. It was a shame the paper looked like that shiny, digital stuff as the images were so divine.

[Late Developer]

............mind you, from the documentary I saw on Sky Arts called "Last Days of the Arctic" Rax uses a combination of Mamiya 6 (or maybe 7 - I couldn't see exactly), Leica M film bodies and Canon DSLR. Perhaps using inkjet rather than chemical printing is just his way of achieving consistent print quality and optimising margins...? It seems a common enough approach these days.

[Suzi Livingstone]

............mind you, from the documentary I saw on Sky Arts called "Last Days of the Arctic" Rax uses a combination of Mamiya 6 (or maybe 7 - I couldn't see exactly), Leica M film bodies and Canon DSLR. Perhaps using inkjet rather than chemical printing is just his way of achieving consistent print quality and optimising margins...? It seems a common enough approach these days.

Maybe. I would love to have seen that doc! Must search see if its online..

[Late Developer]

If you have Sky+ then do a search for "Last Days of the Arctic" (probably only need to put on "Last" or "Arctic" to get everything listed).

It tends to be repeated on BBC4. Maybe check BBC i-Player.....??

The other option is to contact Proud Chelsea as they had the DVD of it. Not sure if it was the English version or the Icelandic with subtitles - but the scenery / cinematography was stunning. There's also reference to (and some content from) his "Faces of the North" portraits work.