Issue1 TasteBound compressed - Flipbook - Page 10
Driven by a desire to reconnect with humanity,
photographer Jimmy Nelson has spent decades
documenting indigenous communities around the world
– not for the image alone, but for the profound human
interactions behind each shot. Here, he reflects on
vulnerability, trust and the art of truly seeing
‘None of my
images are
spontaneous.
Wherever
I go, there is
a lot of
preamble
before I even
get out my
camera’
8
TA S T E B O U N D
y father was a geologist, so I travelled
internationally – up until I found
myself in a Catholic Jesuit boarding
school in Lancashire aged seven. It
was not a happy decade of my life.
At the age of 16 everything went pearshaped. I was very ill with malaria,
I spent two weeks locked away and my
hair fell out overnight. When I walked out of that room I felt
such a disconnection with self, like something was wrong with
me. As a child, all you want is to conform, and I felt like I was
carrying this ugliness. I ran back into the world at the age of
17 to reconnect with humanity – to find people who would see
me for who I was, not how I looked or felt.
First, I made my way to Tibet – inspired by the adventures
of Tintin – and I lived there as a monk for three years in the
1980s. There were no other foreigners; I was not an explorer,
just a lost soul looking to reconnect. Then, aged 23, I moved
to the Netherlands, had three kids and worked as a
commercial photographer. But I am restless. So I began
compiling this body of work; it’s a specific aesthetic, an
artistic representation of indigenous heritage.
None of my images are spontaneous. Wherever I go, there
is a lot of preamble before I even get out my camera. It can
take years to build the level of trust needed – to show I’m not
here to demean or patronise, but to celebrate and honour the
person. It’s not so much about the picture as the interaction.
The difficulty it requires to take a picture with the kit I use
can seem insurmountable. My images are analogue; often
large-format film cameras first used in the 1830s. Now, in the
age of smartphones, there are six billion photographers on the
planet. The act of pointing and shooting – and putting a filter
on the image later – is actually quite aggressive.
My process is collaborative. Often I make just one picture.
If you first invest, explain, show humility, vulnerability and
Jimmy Nelson joins his models
for a snap on location in Kenya
Aurel, in her early
20s, embodies a wider
resurgence among
younger generations
reconnecting with their
heritage. In an ever-more
homogenous world that often
prizes convenience and
conformity, the ritual of this
dress offers something more
rooted: a sense of pride,
identity and belonging.
