I S S U E 0 4 . W E A R E A L L M I G R A N T S .

VOLUME 01 ISSUE 04

BI-MONTHLY ARTS AND DESIGN MAGAZINE

DECEMBER 2013 - JANUARY 2014

`200

SNEAK PEEK

INDIA ART FAIR 2014

PHOTOGRAPHER

FAN HO

SPOTLIGHT

CHRISTIE’S IN INDIA

NEWS AND EVENTS

PARIS PHOTO REVIEW

This article has appeared in Arts Illustrated Vol 01 Issue 04

For as long as I can remember, I have

travelled the world. My father worked for

a major oil company and by the time I was

seven, I had seen more countries than most

people get to visit in a lifetime. hereafter I

travelled back and forth to boarding school

in the UK from all corners of the world.

You can imagine that from a very early

age I was made aware of the rapid cultural

changes happening around the world.

At the age of sixteen I lost all my hair

due to the accidental use of a wrong

medicine. his event changed me not

only aesthetically, but also personally; I

felt diferent from everyone else due to my

new appearance. Soon after, I decided to

abandon my plans to go to university and

instead disappear(ed) on a year’s journey

to ‘ind myself ’. I travelled the length

of Tibet by foot, and on my return the

amateurish photo diary that I made was

published. his was the start of my career

as a photographer.

In the years that followed, I worked as

a photojournalist in various locations

like Afghanistan, Pakistan, El Salvador,

Nicaragua and former Yugoslavia. I

moved to China for a three-year project

called ‘Literary Portraits of China’,

which was eventually published to wide

international acclaim. In 1998 I settled

down in Amsterdam, where I worked as

a commercial photographer and began a

family. At one point, however, after living

of my commercial work for over a decade,

I felt that my career had slipped into a rut

of supericiality. What I really wanted to do

was get back into the world and search for

ancient civilisations.

TALKS TO AI ABOUT HIS JOURNEY OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

Jimmy Nelson

NENETS OF RUSSIA PAGE 380/381 © BEFORE THEY PASS AWAY BY JIMMY NELSON, NENETS, RUSSIA, PUBLISHED BY TENEUES, € 128, - WWW.TENEUES.COM. PHOTO © JIMMY NELSON

PICTURES BV, WWW.BEFORETHEY.COM

98 ARTS ILLUSTRATED | DEC 2013 - JAN 2014 | PHOTOGRAPHY

This article has appeared in Arts Illustrated Vol 01 Issue 04

BEFORE THEY PASS AWAY

My dream had always been to preserve our

world’s tribes through my photography.

Not to stop change from happening –

because I know I can’t – but to create a

visual document that reminds us, and the

generations after us, of the beauty of pure and

honest living. And of all the important things

it teaches us, ingredients we seem to have

forgotten in our so-called civilised world.

he book that originated from this project

is meant as a source of inspiration, and its

main objective is to keep tribal tradition

alive fro us to learn from. I’m privileged to

have been given the opportunity to fulil

this lifelong passion, but it is not about me:

it is a catalyst for something far bigger.

APPROACHING AND

CONNECTING WITH THE TRIBES

he most important lesson I learned was that,

in order to connect to any kind of people in

any situation, you need to let go of all your

arrogance. Showing them that we are – just

like them – human and vulnerable – is a

prerequisite for a project like this. As with all

relationships in life, the key to profoundly

connect with someone is trust. Only when one

is stripped of wealth, class, colour and culture

disparities, true humanistic communication

can start lowing.

On a number of locations, when we

irst arrived somewhere, the people were

reluctant to let us photograph them. What

we did was leave the camera behind for the

irst days, in order not to intimidate them.

We would sleep in their accommodation

because we did not want to give the

impression to feel better than them.

Wherever we went, we always approached

the people we photographed with enormous

dignity. We would try to communicate,

usually with the help of translators. When

the people we visited inally had warmed up

to us, our enthusiasm worked as a catalyst

for theirs. Our passion, our perfectionism

and our teamwork seemed to be contagious

and, in most cases, the locals soon wanted to

participate in it. he positive energy and pride

that emerged from working together with the

people is being relected in the photographs.

KAZAKHS OF MONGOLIA PAGE 14 © BEFORE THEY PASS AWAY BY JIMMY NELSON, KAZAKHS, MONGOLIA, PUBLISHED BY TENEUES, € 128, - WWW.TENEUES.COM. PHOTO © JIMMY NELSON

PICTURES BV, WWW.BEFORETHEY.COM

“THERE IS A PHOTO OF THREE

NATIVE KAZAKH MEN FROM

MONGOLIA WITH EAGLES ON THEIR

SHOULDERS ON A MOUNTAIN. THAT

PICTURE TOOK THREE DAYS TO

MAKE, BECAUSE EACH MORNING

THERE WASN’T ENOUGH LIGHT.”

99 PHOTOGRAPHY | DEC 2013 - JAN 2014 | ARTS ILLUSTRATED

This article has appeared in Arts Illustrated Vol 01 Issue 04

SPECIAL EXPERIENCES

here is one particular story of a tough moment

for me as a photographer. here is a photo

of three native Kazakh men from Mongolia

with eagles on their shoulders on a mountain.

hat picture took three days to make, because

each morning there wasn’t enough light. On

the fourth morning, it was about minus 20

degrees on top of the mountain and the light

was beautiful. I took of my gloves to take the

photo and they literally froze to the camera. I

began crying, and when I turned my head I

saw that two women had followed us to the

top of the mountain. One of them took my

ingers and cradled them in her jacket until

I got the feeling back and was able to take a

couple of photographs. What I didn’t know

was that these women are actually strict Sunni

Muslims, and broke all codes of modesty

in order to aid me. hey had noticed my

desperation and did what they could to help

me achieve what I was there for.

TIBETANSPAGE 280 © BEFORE THEY PASS AWAY BY JIMMY NELSON, TIBETANS, PUBLISHED BY TENEUES, € 128, - WWW.TENEUES.COM. PHOTO © JIMMY NELSON PICTURES BV,

WWW.BEFORETHEY.COM

100 ARTS ILLUSTRATED | DEC 2013 - JAN 2014 | PHOTOGRAPHY

This article has appeared in Arts Illustrated Vol 01 Issue 04

PERSPECTIVE FOR THE TRIBES

I want to show these tribes that

they are already rich, that they have

something that money can’t buy. I

would like to demonstrate to them

that the western modern society is not

that pure and inspiring as their own

culture and values and therefore it is

not something to necessarily aspire

for. I want to make the tribes realise

that their lifestyle is one of much

more purity and beauty than ‘ours’; it

is free of corruption and greed. I want

them to be proud of their authenticity

and defend it in order to preserve it.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT.

MAORI OF NEW ZEALAND. PAGE 105

MAORI OF NEW ZEALAND. PAGE 104

DROKPA OF INDIA/PAKISTAN. PAGE 313

LADAKHI OF INDIA. PAGE 227

ALL IMAGES: © BEFORE THEY PASS AWAY BY JIMMY NELSON,

PUBLISHED BY TENEUES, € 128, - WWW.TENEUES.COM. PHOTO

© JIMMY NELSON PICTURES BV, WWW.BEFORETHEY.COM

101 PHOTOGRAPHY | DEC 2013 - JAN 2014 | ARTS ILLUSTRATED

This article has appeared in Arts Illustrated Vol 01 Issue 04

FUTURE PLANS

We have photographed 35 tribes so far, based on

aesthetic beauty, geographical location and the

diversity of the nature they live in. he photographs

in this book show the enormous diversity of the

extraordinary nature on our planet.

he irst next step is to go back to the tribes that

we photographed and show them the result. I want

them to realise how important their existence is for

the rest of the world and the future of humanity.

In the next few years, we are planning to visit

and photograph another 35 tribes: for example

those in the Middle East, those in China and the

Aboriginals in Australia. We have to, however, take

into account that, because of political situations,

religion or conlict, some of these places and tribes

might not be as easily accessible as others.

HIMBA OF NAMIBIAPAGE 48 © BEFORE THEY PASS AWAY BY JIMMY NELSON, PUBLISHED BY TENEUES, € 128, - WWW.TENEUES.COM. PHOTO © JIMMY NELSON PICTURES BV, WWW.BEFORETHEY.COM

COVER OF THE BOOK “BEFORE THEY PASS AWAY”© BEFORE THEY PASS AWAY BY JIMMY NELSON,

MAASAI, TANZANIA, PUBLISHED BY TENEUES,

€ 128, - WWW.TENEUES.COM. PHOTO © JIMMY

NELSON PICTURES BV, WWW.BEFORETHEY.COM

PORTRAIT JIMMY NELSON: PHOTO © JIMMY NELSON PICTURES BV,

WWW.BEFORETHEY.COM

102 ARTS ILLUSTRATED | DEC 2013 - JAN 2014 | PHOTOGRAPHY

This article has appeared in Arts Illustrated Vol 01 Issue 04