The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay
“A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine. Fabulous!”
Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker
July 2015 back issue
by Jimmy Nelson
Altantsogts, Bayan Olgii. March 2011.
Khairatkhan, Ulaankhus, Bayan Olgii. March 2011.
Hartmann Valley, Cafema, 2005.
Ambua Falls, Tari Valley 2010.
Simbai, Nukunt Village, Bismark Range, Central Highlands. 2010.
North Island 2011.
North Island 2011.
Huka Falls, North Island 2011.
Chele Village, Upper Mustang, May 2011.
Lomangthang Village Upper Mustang, 2011.
Estancia el Ombu, San Antonio de Areco. November 2011.
Lamayuru Monastery, Lamayuru Village, Ladakh.
February 2012.
Dha Village, Kashmir.
Buddhist Monks, Ganden Monastery Tibet.
Yamal Peninsular, Ural Mountains, March 2011.
© Before They Pass Away by Jimmy Nelson, published by teNeues, £ 100.00, also available as Collector’s Edition &
Collector’s Edition XXL - www.teneues.com
All photos © Jimmy Nelson Pictures BV, www.beforethey.com, www.facebook.com/jimmy.nelson.btpa
Jimmy Nelson is not a scientist, nor does he pretend to have answers to the
complex questions surrounding the extinction of cultures or tribes. He travels to
extreme places out of an inner necessity, remembering how at age 16, he
already wanted to find out about his own eccentricity, not by hiding, but by
encountering others like him: atypical, individualistic nomads. He found them in
Tibet, not in London, and knew that he wanted to record these unique
personalities in order to save them from anonymity or, worse, from being
forgotten. He discovered that a camera is the perfect tool for making contact and
building friendships. Initially, he concentrated on wars, gang culture, violence
and pain. Later he focused on purity and beauty, trying to be a catalyst,
demanding our attention for the untouched, inauspiciously melting in the
distance.
Jimmy Nelson is not about facts: he is a romantic, an idealist, an aesthete. By
celebrating the beauty and uniqueness of shrinking communities in distant parts
of our world, he wants us to wake up to a reality that most of us are trying to
deny. If we do not document these last unspoilt men and their rituals, they will
disappear without a trace. It will be too late to mourn when the last tribesmen
are wearing suits and living in town- houses. In their quest for modernism the tribes themselves bury their traditional
dresses, jewellery, weapons and symbols and give up their body paintings: the mysterious messages within themselves.
Because nobody has told them how distinctively unique they are, they don’t consider their culture to be an inheritance
worth protecting. With the exception of the Maori in New Zealand, the peoples that we incorrectly tend to call ‘primitive
cultures’ do not feel different, let alone threatened.
However, being confronted by a photographer who insists that they are unique incites an extraordinary change in their
attitude. Men, women and children become proud, if not rather vain. And insisting may even be too weak a description
when it comes to Jimmy Nelson. When you see him at work you would believe the devil has taken possession of his
whole being. He shouts, jumps, gesticulates, cries, hugs, laughs and even climbs trees to explain what he wants. At the
end of the day he is nursing cuts and bruises. How can any tribesman refuse a thing to a stranger with so much
passion? He becomes one of them, almost wilder and prouder than they are. What seemed unimportant to them
becomes essential to him. Show us the essence of your being, he orders, and out come the belts and jewels, the
knives and spears hidden in cupboards, the traditional chief’s headwear and the warrior’s face paint. A catalyst is
exactly what he is. He literally begs us all to open our eyes and start caring.
Mark Blaisse
