Check out these photos from photographer Jimmy Nelson’s photo project, “Before They Pass Away.” For the past four years, Nelson spent his time traversing remote areas of Africa, Asia, South America, and Siberia.
He calls these people “the last bastions of human purity and authenticity: the world’s lingering, dying tribes.”
These photos of the raw landscape and nobility in these dying tribes are breathtaking. His disgust for homogeneity may perhaps be the echo felt by the general culture today. The hunt for value and authenticity in technological advance when compared to the historical precedence of the lifestyles of these tribes makes one cringe, no? Nelson describes his intention for this project:
“In the very near future, they will all have smartphones,” he explained. “The world is quickly becoming homogenous, and this change is happening at breakneck speed.”
“In all this homogeneity, people no longer think that their ethnicity and authenticity is valuable. They think what’s valuable is what they see here,” he said, gesturing to the many indistinguishable laptops that sat on almost every table in the crowded cafe before pointing to his heart, “and not in here.”
Check out his website here.