Jimmy Nelson Archives

7 life lessons learned from photographing tribal and indigenous people throughout the world

Aug 8, 2016 by John Aldred 1 Comment

Photography teaches us some very valuable lessons. Some of those lessons are common to all of us. Like, remembering to check your camera battery isn’t flat before you leave the house. Other lessons are somewhat more unique, and profound.

British photographer Jimmy Nelson has spent the past 31 years travelling the world. He photographs tribal and indigenous people to turn them into icons. In this video from the Cooperative of Photography, Jimmy shares some of his most intimate life lessons. Lessons he’s learned from the people he’s met along the way.

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Bob On The Rock And When Inspiration May Seem Like Copy

Feb 23, 2016 by Mitchell Kanashkevich 3 Comments

[note from the editor: being inspired is often an illusive process, I mean, it was all said and done and all we do now is remix, right? This is especially true in the realm creative arts. What differentiate “heavily inspired” from “blatantly copied”? How much of an image is the idea, and how much of it is the execution? Mitchell Kanashkevich is a travel photographer who has a regular section on his website where he takes the reader behind the scenes of some of his photographs. There is a crazy story connected to the last photo he posted. I asked if I could share it here.]

An image of a warrior native with a bow and arrow is not a new idea. I was inspired by a photo of a Papuan man atop a hill (right) made by a well-known photographer of disappearing cultures Chris Rainier. I’ve probably seen similar images elsewhere too, but, this is the specific photograph that I stuck in my memory. I took an element from his photo – the warrior ready to fire away and appropriated it to my situation with my model Bob from Rah Island in Vanuatu.

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Photographing Tribesman On The Crater Rim Of An Active Volcano

Aug 20, 2015 by Tiffany Mueller 2 Comments

Jimmy Nelson is no stranger to photographing vanishing tribes from around the globe. In fact, he recently delivered a great TED talk about his numerous adventures as a photographer. But, before he visited the TED studios, Nelson spent some time on the Oceanic islands of Vanuatu. During his time on the island chain, the photographer visited five of the 83 islands that make up the chain. That included a trip to the crater rim of a (very active) volcano, where he photographed a group of native tribesman.

“To get to all these islands, we rented a small plane with a twenty-four year old Kiwi pilot. There was no GPS, no radar, no air traffic control. We just pointed out on a map where we wanted to go and he took us there – with an inflatable boat on our laps, in case the plane went down.”

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Jimmy Nelson shares the challenges of photographing 31 vanishing people groups

May 30, 2015 by Allen Mowery Leave a Comment

I’ve always been fascinated by anthropology, but, with a father who was an anthropology professor, it’s little wonder that some of it wore off on me. In a utopian world, I think, at least, that my ideal life’s mission would be jetting off to the four corners of the world to document those people who are sort of hidden from the rest of the planet.

While he claims no title of anthropologist, photographer Jimmy Nelson did just that, setting off with an air of romanticism to capture the beauty of 31 vanishing people groups throughout the world.

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