Check out this site. Tribal people from around the world

[NV Whino]

http://themetapicture.com/photos-taken-around-the-world-of-some-of-the-last-forms-of-tribal-life/

These portraits are incredibly beautiful. It's obvious he's manipulated the photos, but they only enhance the portraits.

Well worth a look.

[alfredo]

1. Those are beautiful.

[hunter]

2. I wonder if he could take a nice photograph of me in my tribal dress?

Women love it, I can tell by the way they look at me. Something like this:

(I'm very creative with the colored sunblock!)

But seriously I'm always a little disturbed by these sorts of pictures. The perspectives often seems very nineteenth century.

I remember back when National Geographic published a photo of a European woman topless on a Mediterranean beach and many subscribers flamed out in rage. "Tribal people," were fine, National Geographic had been doing that from the beginning. But "our" people NOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo!

I've also lived in places where tourists taking pictures of the "natives" are seen in a most unfavorable light and will be asked to leave, or sadder, places where people pose and dress for money, often very stereotypical poses that do not reflect the actual culture. Heck, if you want to photograph stereotypes, build a set, make the costumes, and hire a model. This is the U.S.A. Someone will have the "look" you want. You might not even have to leave the city.

It's much the same sort of thing as the fully clothed stranger at the nude beach taking photos with a long lens. But in the case of "tribal" photos there is often a whiff of racism too...

I'm not saying this has anything to do with the way Mr. Nelson practices his art, I'm simply saying this kind of photography always makes me clench my teeth a little.

I don't know, maybe in the end it's all a kind of voyeurism.

And it may happen our so-called industrial "civilization" won't outlast some of these tribal cultures.

Here is Jimmy Nelson's website for his book:

http://www.beforethey.com

[groundloop]

5. I agree with some of your points re. showing dark skinned women is "ok"....

Back when there was actually educational stuff on cable I watched several documentaries on various African tribes. All of them where the women had dark skin were shown unedited. There was one tribe (can't remember where they were located) which was much lighter skinned, all those women's breasts were pixelated, so I take it the cable stations thought that white breasts and black breasts should be treated differently.

As far as the photos in the link, I personally don't see them as anything other than a photographer documenting tribal people of the world. While it's obvious that many of those photos are posed I don't see that as being much different as the tribes dressing up in their "Sunday best" as it were when honored guests visit.

In any case, those are great photos.

[CC]

3. Here is the direct link

to his site http://www.beforethey.com/ (Found it in the comments.) TY, love the photos so far. The menu is a PITA on my browser though but it might just be me. I might go try it on a different browser.

[postatomic]

4. Beautiful and even a little haunting in a few