Axel Poignant, of Anglo-Swedish heritage, was educated partly in Sweden. After he moved to Perth, Western Australia, in 1930, he began to pursue his interest in photography. He was particularly interested in photographing the Australian landscape and native animals, and authored and illustrated books on the subject, including Bush Animals of Australia (1949), and The Improbable Kangaroo and Other Australian Animals (1965).
Poignant also developed an affinity with Aboriginal people and photographed them extensively, which led to him spending two months in Arnhem Land with them in 1952. He also photographed Australian writers and artists, including Patrick White and Judith Wright (qq.v.), and his photographs have been widely exhibited. Poignant also held various jobs in radio and print media, as well working on the film The Overlanders (1946), and also as a cinematographer on a film about the Aboriginal artist Albert Namitjira, which was released as Namatjira the Painter (1947). He also worked on the short film Indonesia Calling (1946), a film made by Dutch filmmaker Joris Ivens in Australia, which was banned from export because it concerned the liberation of the Netherlands Indies and was considered anti-Dutch by the censorship board.
His books for children were written in collaboration with his wife, Roslyn Poignant (q.v.) In 1956 Poignant left Australia and settled in London where he worked as a photo-journalist for the Observer and the London Times. A selection of his photographs was published in a book entitled Axel Poignant : Photographs 1922-1980 (1984).
