British photographer Jimmy Nelson decided to travel the world for three years, visiting 35 tribes in all five continents. It wasn’t that they were unfriendly – they had repeatedly offered him of vodka, which, not being much of a drinker, he’d refused. But after failing to persuade them to pose for him, he decided to put his camera away and play the grateful guest. The result was that in no time at all he got steaming drunk and slumped into an alcoholic stupor. The next thing he knew, he was waking up in a teepee tent surrounded by about 30 people with a bladder fit to burst. Wrapped up in about eight layers of clothes and with the temperature minus 40 outside, British photographer Jimmy Nelson had no option than to pee in his pants and drift back off to sleep. The next thing he knew was that the tent had collapsed under a stampede of reindeer – animals who, unbeknown to him, are attracted to the salt in urine. Soon the beasts had surrounded him trying to lick his clothes . ‘At the beginning the Tsaatan people were absolutely livid. But by making a complete plonker of myself and becoming the laughing stock of the group, they finally began to open up.’ His new book “Before They Pass Away” is a snapshot of these tribes as they are now and stands as both a piece of art and an historical document. His journey took him across all five continents, visiting such far flung places as mountainous region of Bayan Olgii in Mongolia, the Baliem Valley of Papua New Guinea and the wildest parts of southern Ethiopia. ( By Daniel Miller from www.dailymail.co.uk ) © Before They Pass Away by Jimmy Nelson, is published by teNeues, www.teneues.com Photo © Jimmy Nelson Pictures BV, www.beforethey.com
