A photographic journey by Jimmy Nelson to visit 31 indigenous tribes resulted in an outstanding book.
British-born and Jesuit-educated Jimmy Nelson started working as a photographer in 1987. On his first journey he famously traversed the length of Tibet on foot for a year. The images he captured from a then previously inaccessible Tibet were published to wide international acclaim. Later he produced an another well-known project that took 30 months of travelling together with his wife – ‘Literary Portraits of China’ – which was exhibited in the People’s Palace on Tiananmen Square, Beijing, and then followed by a world-wide tour.
His latest project was visiting indigenous tribes: “In 2009, I planned to become a guest of 31 secluded and visually unique tribes. I wanted to witness their time-honoured traditions, join in their rituals and discover how the rest of the world is threatening to change their way of life forever. Most importantly, I wanted to create an ambitious aesthetic photographic document that would stand the test of time. A body of work that would be an irreplaceable ethnographic record of a fast disappearing world.”
I soaked in each photograph published on his website, lingering over them, letting the spectacular images speak. In our so-called civilised world we forget just how many people are living on this planet whose lives still contain a certain purity, people who are not immobilised and chained to mobile phones, satellites and television and divulging in creature comforts and fast food. Those who live with and in nature are definitely not cosseted but their world is vast, dangerous, yet alive and deeply mysterious. Jimmy Nelson opened a window into their lives and lived with each tribe for about two weeks.
A collection of 402 photos taken on this astonishing journey is available in the huge photo book ‘Before They Pass Away’. He says, “The book is a catalyst for change, a museum of knowledge. Not one filled with masks and spears and feathers, but a place of learning.”
Jimmy Nelson is not only one of the world’s most outstanding photographers but also a daring adventurer. This video is the first cut of one of the episodes of the potential TV series ‘Before They Pass Away’ – the making of it. It shows Jimmy Nelson and his team travelling to Vanuatu Islands; they visited 5 of an 83 islands chain, and portrayed a tribe on each one.
Immerse yourself into the journey!
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