© Jimmy Nelson
The identity of ancient tribes
Jimmy Nelson
The Jimmy Nelson Foundation has as its goal a better intercultural dialogue and understanding.
"Our Dream is a culturally diverse and healthy planet with respect for each other." This is one of the opening phrases on the website of the Jimmy Nelson Foundation. The British-Dutch photographer is continuously working on projects on the many almost forgotten, ancient tribes and native people all over the world. It all started with his big volume Before they pass away.
The Foundation has as its goal a better intercultural dialogue and understanding, which are essential to ensure a prosperous future for our species and planet. But as the world’s cultural colours are fading fast, the photographer wants to collect the images of cultural identities before they pass away. How did he come to his ongoing project?
The bald Jimmy Nelson carefully opens the Collector's Edition XXL of the book Before they pass away, the massive book with a size of 46 by 63 cm and neatly packed in a large handmade box. The first remarkable feature is the colours of the pictures: subdued, sometimes almost monochrome, occasionally almost exclusively earth-like colours, but never harsh, clear, or fully saturated. It characterizes the atmosphere of the global project, Before they pass away, for which he visited 35 different tribes in just two and a half years.
The project's title may sound dramatic, but Nelson wanted to indicate that these 'primitive' societies are on the verge of disappearance. "I want to show the richness of these cultures because the people themselves will not disappear, but their culture probably will. These people are in balance with themselves, and they are still in contact with the earth in a way that we have lost. The so-called 'primitive' people even feel their soul, and we are far from the basics of our lives."
Romantic
Nelson travelled for his project to the farthest and most impassable corners of the world, and he took both digital Nikons and a (partly) self-built analogue 4x5 camera with a variety of lenses. The argument for a 4x5 inch analogue camera is usually its sharpness and details, but Nelson based his choice mainly on the earthly character of the analogue camera. "The photos are often not that sharp at all, I had exposure times of a few seconds, and sometimes the film surface was not flat in the corners, so many photos are not sharp. And here and there, photos have been taken unevenly over each other or were badly exposed. All forms of imperfection I found interesting because I am romantic, and analogue photography fits in with that. Also, I never used flash, because that would detract from the atmosphere of romance. And precisely because of the long exposure times, I had to be calm and concentrate fully. The portraits I took inside their homes have been made with reflectors that look more natural. All the people who see my photos are touched by the beauty and will, therefore, delve into the story, which is what I wanted to achieve."
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Outsider
Upon seeing a large number of beautiful pictures, the question arises on how a photographer became committed to such a huge project. Nelson explains how everything in his life led to this project. "I am of English descent, and my father worked at the Shell. As a child, I have been all around the world, and I saw many cultures. Before I was ten, I had seen more countries than most people in their entire lives. At the British boarding school, I felt like an outsider, and I showed pictures of my black friends, who were not well understood. I got malaria when I was fifteen, but the doctor gave the wrong medication, so I became completely bald, which made me feel like a stranger in my environment. When I finished school, I decided not to study but to travel. Since the monks there were also bald, I travelled to Tibet, where I took many pictures. By publishing those photos, I could travel again. In this way, I travelled for years as a photojournalist."
Nelson gradually left the field of photojournalism and started making money in the advertising industry. "When the crisis came, and everyone could take a photo with his or her smartphone, the prices plunged, and my work came under pressure. It depressed me and gave me two options; to stop photography altogether or to do a special project." Jimmy Nelson had to create a story in which he could express his passion. Therefore, he returned to the fascination that he already had in his youth: foreign people in distant countries.
Nomads
Nelson did not want the show the well-known misery many tribes live in. "I have always said to the people: show the most beautiful part of yourself. I gave them my full attention while some people did not understand what a camera was; they must have thought it was quite magical; therefore, they joined enthusiastically. I gave them pride and dignity. Actually, I want to feel that pride myself. In that sense, the project is also about myself. In this way, I could heal the outsider I was as a little kid. It was a kind of therapy. As a boy, I also wanted the attention I give the people in my photos. By giving it to them, I get it back myself. It is a matter of identity, just as I lost my own identity as a child, alone at boarding school, the Maoris and the Himba, the Kalam and Vanuatu are also in danger of losing their identity. By photographing them, I want to give their identity back. Literally, because with my book, I want to go back to the tribes and start a discussion with them about their place in the world and about our way of life." And he did. For his second book Homage to Humanity, Jimmy Nelson returned to the tribes and not only photographed them but also interviewed and filmed them.
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