Jimmy Nelson – Before They Pass Away

Dirk Terpstra: The intention of publishing this beautiful book is to start a dialogue, to start a new conversation, but you also plan to re-visit all the people and show them the images. Please tell me more about it.

Jimmy Nelson: We are already talking to people and sponsors and television companies to start a television series of me going back and giving the book – I took the stories from them and I want to give something back now. The idea behind it is: “Who are you? Who are we? Who am I to do this, am I right? How do you see yourself in the pictures and what can we learn from you and what can you learn from us as you further evolve?” They will not remain there but it is our responsibility to find a way to enlighten them to how special they are – what they have and we don’t have anymore and to make sure what happened a hundred years ago with the American Indians for example doesn’t happen again. I need people’s opinion and I need critics to make it into a bigger discussion about cultural rebalance and cultural identity.

“There’s a serious interest for my projects and for what I am talking about – people love the depth and authenticity. It is not so much the book or the pictures, but people want to feel. I can see that people are searching, people are looking and they don’t want to be me, they don’t want to do what I do and they are not even interested in the tribes, but they are really curious in the journey I put myself on.”