Axelsson was a photojournalist at Morgunbladid, the leading Icelandic newspaper (1976–2020), and has worked on freelance assignments around the world including Greenland, Alaska, Siberia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Mozambique, South Africa, China and Ukraine. Axelsson’s work has been exhibited widely, both in Iceland and internationally. He has received more than twenty Icelandic photojournalism awards. He has received an honourable mention in the Leica Oskar Barnack Award (2001) and has been shortlisted for the same prize (2020). He won the Grand Prix at Festival International de la Photo de Mer, Vannes, France (2003), and his book Andlit Nordursins (English edition, Face of the North) won the 2016 Icelandic Literary Prize for non-fiction. His photographs have been featured in Life, Newsweek, Stern, GEO, National Geographic, Time and Polka Magazine. Axelsson has published a total of eight books, including Jokull (Glacier) (2018) and, most recently, Arctic Heroes (2020). He is a recipient of the Knight’s Cross of the Order of the Falcon, Iceland’s highest honour.