Photography: Jimmy Nelson's jaw-dropping photos of the world's rarest tribes

Date
11 November 2013

A bit like knighthoods or the word “devastating”, The term “life’s work” gets bandied about a bit casually for my liking. In this case, though, it is almost not big enough a term to describe just what Jimmy Nelson has been filling his time with. Travelling around the world armed with an enormous 4×5 camera (complete with a hood) he has trekked across dangerous lands in search for the world’s least seen tribes.

What he’s come back with is a triumphant, in-depth look at some of the rarest people in the world and how they live. The portraits are majestic, the landscape shots are epic and the amount of knowledge you gain from every single photo is shocking. The fact that Jimmy’s extensively shot a whopping 29 different tribes is enough to keep you interested ’til Christmas 2015. What a guy. Check out his TED Talk here.

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Jimmy Nelson: Kazakh

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Jimmy Nelson: Kazakh

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Jimmy Nelson: Huli

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Jimmy Nelson: Huli

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Jimmy Nelson: Masai

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Jimmy Nelson: Masai

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Jimmy Nelson: Goroka

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Jimmy Nelson: Goroka

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About the Author

Liv Siddall

Liv joined It’s Nice That as an intern in 2011 and worked across online, print and events, and was latterly Features Editor before leaving in May 2015.

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