Netherlands-based photographer Jimmy Nelson has published the best-selling book Before They Pass Away as a record of tribal cultures around the world. Using a large-plate field camera he captured portraits of people and the landscapes they live in. Here, he shares his thoughts on the book, the people in it and photography.
I’m by far not the first person to do this. Edward Curtis was doing this with the American Indian in the 1890s. He died bankrupt and 95 percent of his books were destroyed. In the 1970s a few of his photos emerged and America went nuts when they saw this piece of history. The proud people he showed were hidden away on reservations suffering severe social problems. There was a whole new debate around the images. The difference now is maybe as humans we have learned some lessons.
The large majority of people I photographed did not know what a camera was. Eighty percent of what you see is how they are and what they wear on a daily basis. Twenty percent is where I encouraged them to be at their proudest and most celebratory. It’s like taking a photograph of your family and asking you to put your best clothes on. It’s still you but a version of you at your best.
The costume is purely a catalyst, a visual lure to get people into the discussion. The real value of beauty is what you feel inside, not what you look like. The power is in what you feel about your identity. The muscle has to be added to the skeleton. The real value is what these people stand for, what they represent. They are important to us. The pictures are the lure to get you interested and curious and into the subject.
We can’t pretend progress is not going to happen. We have to grab it and put it on the table and talk about it. The Rainforest Foundation wants to intervene and manage it. A lot of the Amazonian groups are essentially becoming tourist attractions. If you do nothing, the rainforest will disappear anyway. If they don’t have access to some material possessions, they will go off into the city and find it. They can stay where they are only if they can make it more valuable. The only way to do that is to hold on to your authenticity, to make you interesting for others to come and visit you.
You spend all your life trying to fit in, but until you find yourself — and not until then — do you become interesting to other people. I always wanted to work for Nike and every year I went to them and made my pitch. I never got a job. They rang me a few days ago and said: “Would you come and talk to us?” I told them all the pictures I make nowadays have nothing to do with shoes and they said: “It’s not about the shoes, it’s about you. In the past you were trying to please us and do what everybody else is doing. Now you are doing something unique and that is what we were looking for.” You try to fit in until you have to jump. When you are 100 percent invested in it, it becomes interesting to other people.
I’d argue that I’m inverting the viewpoint. It’s about iconography. Let’s talk about Kate Moss, for example. She’s an icon, put on a pedestal as very beautiful. On holiday, you might take a very different picture of her. The people I photograph are normally photographed in that way, shot on a phone from hundreds of meters away. So I set out to give people who are thought of as nobodies the attention of a somebody, putting them on a pedestal.
There is increasing homogenization. By 2050, the UN says 95 percent of the world will be covered in concrete. As that happens the cultural balance of the world will go. You can’t stop it but you can bring it into the discussion. The Rainforest Foundation is trying to show these people that they have a value and a wealth. They can perhaps hold on to some of their identity, some of their culture and remain in their natural setting. They will not be as pure and as proud as we might romanticize them to be but they will hold on to more than they would otherwise.
I’m not an anthropologist. I see myself as a passionate, eccentric mediator in something I feel passionate about. I’m trying to find my balance. Whether that works for other people is very debatable. I’m not arrogant enough to think I have the answers. I’m just trying to provoke thought.
There is nothing wrong with being a tourist. But ask yourself what it is you want to find. People return with millions of photos and get frustrated that they haven’t got the photo they wanted. It’s the why, not how, that is important. Focus on the why and your photos will be ten times better. It might be a photo, it might be painting, it might be video — it’s irrelevant. You’ll come back with less but it will mean more because you’ve had an interaction.
A lot of people love portraiture but they think they can’t take the kind of portrait I take. That’s because they haven’t invested the time in the person. I might spend a month or more in a place but only spend two days taking photos. Narrow it down and it’s much more rewarding. When you sit down and talk with someone, you’ll get a much better photo. Ask what the person’s name is and have a conversation as best as you can, whether it’s sign language or through an interpreter.
Mr. Bean is shown on every plane and everybody in the world laughs. That’s because he strips himself of language and all his strengths. He shows himself as being as fallible as we all are. If you dare to become as vulnerable, you will get a very human interaction without any language. When you are open, people will respond positively. But until you take everything off and become that child of fear and anxiety you’ll never find that connection of joy. It may not be as profound as with language but you do meet on a human basis.
It took me a number of years to understand why I was doing what I was doing. It’s about wanting to see people for who they are, not as we perceive them to be. But human beings only like beauty. They don’t want to be confronted. I spent six years photographing in war zones. They were some of the most amazing images I ever took but no one wanted to look at them or publish them.
You succeed and you fail. I have more scars on me than people know but I’m still on the journey I chose to be on. You can go through life with no scars whatsoever but be miles away from where you want to be. Or you can take a more difficult path. Sometimes you fail but I decided to keep going until I succeed.
First published on www.trvl.com
