Before They Pass Away: Jimmy Nelson's Portraits of 22 Communities

Before They Pass Away is a photo project by the English-born, Amsterdam-based photographer Jimmy Nelson, who spent around three years travelling to portray more than 35 Indigenous and traditional communities on five continents. The results, published as a large-format book by teNeues, are staged, painterly portraits: Kazakh eagle hunters on mountain ridges, Himba women crossing desert dunes, Huli men beside a waterfall, Nenets herders racing reindeer sleds across the snow.

Nelson worked with a decades-old 4x5-inch large-format camera, which records extraordinary detail but forces sitters to hold still, so almost every image was carefully posed. He described his aim as creating “an irreplaceable ethnographic record of a fast disappearing world.” That framing is exactly what made the project controversial. Many Indigenous people and rights groups objected that their cultures are not vanishing at all, and that the pictures show a romantic past rather than the communities as they live today.

Below are 46 of the portraits, grouped by region, with a short note on the people in each. We describe what the photographs show and add background from reliable sources. At the end we look at the criticism, because it is as much part of this story as the pictures.

Mongolia and the Russian Arctic

Kazakh eagle hunters, Mongolia

Horsemen with golden eagles on their arms ride along a rocky ridge high above a winding river. These are Kazakhs of Bayan-Ölgii Province in Mongolia’s Altai Mountains, where an estimated 250 eagle hunters still keep the tradition alive. Their ancestors brought the practice with them when they settled in western Mongolia.

A young man and a young woman are shown in heavy fur hats and coats against a dark background. Fox and wolf fur clothing is essential in the Altai winter, when hunting season takes place. The paired portrait format, used throughout the book, lets the viewer compare dress and ornament closely.

A golden eagle spreads its wings beside a kneeling hunter and his horse on a mountainside. Kazakh falconers hunt mainly red and corsac foxes and hares in winter, when the animals stand out against the snow. Each autumn, the Golden Eagle Festival in Bayan-Ölgii shows off these skills to visitors.

Tsaatan (Dukha), Mongolia

A child in a fur coat rides a white reindeer across a snowy plain, with other reindeer grazing nearby. The Tsaatan, whose Mongolian name means roughly people who have reindeer, call themselves Dukha and are Mongolia’s only reindeer herders. They live in the far north of Khövsgöl Province, and the 2020 census counted only about 200 people.

This frame, placed with the Tsaatan pictures in the original layout, shows a line of people in long fur coats leading Bactrian camels across a frozen lake. Camels are not part of Dukha reindeer herding, so the scene most likely shows other herders of northern Mongolia’s winter, when the ice is thick enough to cross. The Dukha themselves move camp several times a year to find fresh grazing and live in tepee-like tents called ortz.

Chukchi, Russia

Inside a smoky tent, two people tend a pot over an open fire while fluffy sled dogs sit close by. The Chukchi live mainly in Chukotka, Russia’s far north-eastern corner across the Bering Strait from Alaska, and number around 16,000. Families who still herd reindeer live in large skin tents called yaranga, heated by an open fire like this one.

Two weathered elders wear thick reindeer-fur clothing, one holding a pair of antlers. Historically, the Chukchi were divided into coastal communities who hunted sea mammals and inland nomads who followed reindeer herds across the tundra. Today only part of the population works directly in herding or hunting.

A family huddles in the dark around three candles, faces just lit in their fur hoods. Long polar nights make light and warmth precious in Chukotka for months at a time. Nelson’s choice of low light here echoes old painted portraits more than documentary photography.

Nenets, Russia

A man’s face, reddened by cold, looks out from a deep hood of white fur. The Nenets numbered around 50,000 in Russia’s 2021 census, and about half of the Nenets on the Yamal Peninsula are nomadic reindeer herders.

Two herders drive a reindeer sled at full speed, snow flying from the animals’ hooves. Nenets families migrate along fixed routes, moving their herds toward the coast in summer, where the plants are richer and insects fewer. Gas fields and pipelines built on the Yamal Peninsula since 2008 have disrupted some of those routes.

A family of four sits wrapped in reindeer-fur coats and boots, the children in front of their parents. Clothing sewn from reindeer hide is still the best protection against the Yamal winter. This warm family portrait is one of the most widely shared images from the series.

Southern and East Africa

Himba, Namibia

Three Himba women walk away from the camera across rippled sand dunes, their skin and hair coated in red ochre. The Himba number around 50,000 and live mainly in Namibia’s Kunene Region, with some across the river in Angola. They are livestock herders who measure wealth in cattle.

Two Himba women pose in traditional dress, their braids thick with otjize, a paste of butterfat and ochre. The mixture protects the skin from the harsh sun and insects and is considered highly beautiful; its red colour is linked to the earth and to life. A married woman wears the erembe, a decorated leather headpiece, on top of her braids.

Samburu, Kenya

Young Samburu men in red and white cloths and beaded ornaments stand in a line under acacia trees, two of them leaping high. The Samburu live mainly in Samburu County in north-central Kenya and speak a dialect of Maa, the language shared with the Maasai. Jumping is part of their dances, especially among young warriors.

On the left, two women in layers of colourful bead collars lean together; on the right, two young warriors hold tall spears. Beadwork remains central to Samburu dress, and the patterns can signal age and status. Young men of the warrior age-grade, called moran, traditionally wear their hair in long braids until they become elders.

A group of Samburu sits and stands beside a pool of water with camels behind them. Traditionally semi-nomadic, the Samburu herd cattle and also keep goats, sheep and camels, which cope better with drought. Livestock remains at the heart of their economy.

Maasai, Tanzania

A Maasai man in a red shúkà, the wrap-around cloth typical of Maasai dress, stands on a rocky outcrop with a painted shield, a spear and a large ceremonial headdress. The Maasai live in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania, with well over two million people across both countries. Long braided hair marks young warriors, who shave it off when they become junior elders.

Ethiopia’s Omo Valley

Mursi

Two Mursi women are shown with white body paint, one wearing a headdress of horns and tusks, the other a large clay lip plate. The Mursi live between the Omo River and its tributary the Mago in southern Ethiopia and numbered about 11,500 in 2007. Lip plates are traditionally worn by women after the lip is pierced around adolescence and gradually stretched, and today they are also worn for tourists who pay for photographs.

Dassanech

The Dassanech, also spelled Daasanach, live where the Omo River flows into Lake Turkana, across the borders of Ethiopia, Kenya and South Sudan. Once mainly herders, they now combine livestock with crops such as sorghum and maize planted after the river’s floods.

Karo

A large group of Karo, their bodies painted with white patterns, pose on a rocky outcrop above the Omo River. The Karo are a small community of a few thousand people on the lower Omo. They are known for elaborate body decoration, headdresses and scarring that express beauty and status.

Three boys with white-painted faces and bodies wear crowns of bright yellow flowers. Painting the body with white chalky clay and local pigments is a living tradition in the Omo Valley, done for celebrations as well as everyday adornment. This is one of the warmest and most playful images in the book.

Banna

Dozens of Banna men stand in front of banana and sorghum plants, dressed in beads, belts and body paint. The Banna live in the hills of South Omo and form a close cultural unit with their neighbours the Hamar, sharing language, rituals and intermarriage. Both are agro-pastoralists who keep cattle and goats and grow crops.

A group of young men crouch close together, their skin painted with white handprints and lines; one holds a flower in his mouth and another a rifle. Like the Hamar, the Banna mark a young man’s passage to adulthood with the bull-jumping ceremony, after which he may marry and own cattle. The rifle is a reminder that this is a present-day portrait, not a scene from the distant past.

New Guinea

Huli, Papua New Guinea

A group of Huli men in face paint and feather headdresses stand on rocks in front of a jungle waterfall. The Huli are among the largest cultural groups in Papua New Guinea, numbering around a quarter of a million in Hela Province in the Southern Highlands. Note that the Huli live in Papua New Guinea, not Indonesia, although the island of New Guinea is shared by both countries.

In close-up, two Huli men show off yellow face paint, nose ornaments, bead necklaces and headdresses of feathers and fur. Huli men are widely known for the elaborate decorated wigs worn on ceremonial occasions. Europeans first reached the Huli in 1934, and they have kept much of their cultural expression since.

Asaro Mudmen, Papua New Guinea

Grey, clay-covered men in huge mud masks stand among tall bamboo, half hidden by smoke. The Asaro live near Goroka in the Eastern Highlands, and stories of how the masks began vary; one version says warriors covered in river mud were mistaken for spirits by their enemies. The masks were revived and developed for the Eastern Highlands show in 1957 and are now a national symbol of Papua New Guinea.

Kalam, Papua New Guinea

Five men in tall headdresses of feathers and woven fibre stand on a hillside, a faint rainbow behind them. The Kalam reportedly live in the remote Simbai area of Papua New Guinea’s highlands. Headdresses like these are built from the plumes of local birds, and in the Highlands such feathers are valued possessions that are looked after and reused.

Goroka, Papua New Guinea

Painted men and women in red and white, with towering feathered headdresses, emerge from the morning mist. Goroka is the capital of Eastern Highlands Province, where the Goroka Show has brought together around 100 groups every September since 1956 to display their dances and dress. Many of Nelson’s Highland portraits reflect that kind of gathering.

Two men wear striking face paint, one in red and white, the other half red, under elaborate feathered crowns. Highland ceremonial dress uses bird-of-paradise plumes, shells, beads and natural pigments. The colours and patterns can identify a person’s clan.

A seated man covered in white spots, with a painted red nose and a straw headdress, rests among ferns and holds a long stick. Body painting of this kind is performed for sing-sing celebrations across the Highlands. The dark forest background makes the white pattern almost glow.

Dani, Indonesia

Dozens of Dani men with long spears stand and sit in front of round thatched huts. The Dani, around 90,000 people, live in the Baliem Valley in Indonesia’s Highland Papua province, not in Papua New Guinea. Outsiders first saw the valley in 1938, when the American Richard Archbold flew over it.

Three Dani men pose on a misty mountainside with spears and feathered headdresses. The book’s original caption described the Dani as headhunters, a claim rejected by the Papuan independence leader Benny Wenda, who said it was never their tradition. Today the valley also hosts a cultural festival that draws visitors from around the world.

India and the Himalaya

Rabari

A group of Rabari women in dark shawls and heavy jewellery sit and stand in front of a whitewashed house wall lined with small niches. The Rabari are a pastoral community of western India, mainly in Kutch in Gujarat and in Rajasthan. They were traditionally camel herders and now also keep sheep and cattle.

An elder with a magnificent white moustache and a bright turban sits beside a young woman wrapped in red with silver jewellery. Many members of the community have traditional tattoos, called trajva, on the arms, face and neck, made with plant sap mixed with soot. Their name and identity are tied to the herding life of the Thar desert region.

A young man in a white tunic holds a sheathed sword, while a young woman in an embroidered headscarf and nose ring raises her hand. The Rabari trace their origins to Balochistan and reportedly migrated into Kutch and Sindh between the 12th and 14th centuries. Dress like this is worn above all at weddings and festivals.

Ladakhi, India

Three Ladakhi women in long robes and headdresses stand among snow-covered boulders in front of a mountain village. Ladakh is a high plateau in the Indian Himalaya, most of it above 3,000 metres, where winter nights can fall below minus 20 °C. Its culture is closely related to Tibet’s, and Buddhist monasteries such as Hemis and Thiksey are central to local life.

Drokpa (Brokpa), India

A row of Drokpa people in white fur cloaks and flower-covered headdresses stand among snowy rocks and bare trees. The Drokpa, about 4,000 people, live mainly around the villages of Dha and Hanu in Ladakh’s lower Indus valley. They speak Brokskat, an Indo-Aryan language related to Shina, and most are Buddhist.

A man and a woman wear the community’s famous headdresses of fresh flowers, beads and silver ornaments. Popular websites sometimes claim the Drokpa are pure Aryans, but that is speculation; scholars describe them by their language and culture. The flowers are a highlight of their festivals.

The Pacific and South America

Māori, New Zealand

A group of Māori stand on a beach beside a carved waka (canoe), holding traditional weapons and wearing flax skirts. The Māori are the Indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand, and canoe culture is central to their history, since ancestors arrived by voyaging canoe. The setting reflects how closely Māori identity is bound up with the land itself.

This pair of portraits, also used at the top of this page, shows a man with full facial moko and a greenstone pendant beside a young woman in a feather cloak wearing a carved pendant. Pounamu, or New Zealand greenstone, is treasured and often passed down through families. Feather cloaks are among the most prestigious Māori garments.

Two figures holding long carved weapons stand in a forest beside a cascading waterfall. Forests, rivers and mountains carry ancestral meaning for many Māori tribes, and people often introduce themselves by naming their mountain and river. The landscape here is part of the message.

A man and a woman, both with tā moko, wear woven cloaks. Moko was traditionally carved into the skin with chisels called uhi; men usually received it across the face, women on the lips and chin. After decades of decline it has been revived since about 1990 as a proud expression of identity.

Vanuatu

In near darkness, figures painted with pale stripes stand among branches hung with small orange fruit. Vanuatu is a Pacific nation of about 83 islands, independent since 1980, with more than 100 local languages, one of the highest language densities in the world. Customary practice, known as kastom, still guides land, ceremonies and village life.

Gauchos, Argentina

Riders on horseback gather on a rocky hill beneath snow-capped peaks and storm clouds. Gauchos are the skilled horsemen of the South American plains, in Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil. Unlike the other subjects of the book, they are not an Indigenous people but a rural social group, historically of mixed European and Indigenous descent.

Two gauchos pose inside a rustic tack room hung with saddles, ropes and hides, one wrapped in a fringed poncho. Classic gaucho kit includes the poncho, loose trousers called bombachas, a large knife (facón) and a lasso. José Hernández’s 1872 poem Martín Fierro made the gaucho a national symbol of Argentina.

A gaucho in a blue shirt and beret gallops through a herd of horses, a rope in his hand. Gauchos first appeared as a distinct group in the 17th century, hunting wild cattle on the pampas. Today the tradition lives on in ranch work, rodeos and festivals.

The criticism, and how to look at these pictures

Few photo books have been both so admired and so criticised. Admirers praised the craft, the detail and the respect Nelson showed for ceremonial dress. Critics focused on the title and the story told around the images.

• Passing away is not accurate. Survival International gathered responses from Indigenous people who rejected the idea that they are dying out. Yanomami leader Davi Kopenawa put it plainly: “It is not true that Indigenous peoples are about to die out.”
• The images are staged. Communities were photographed in ceremonial clothing, often posed in dramatic places at the photographer’s direction. Nelson himself has called the pictures aesthetic and subjective rather than documentary reportage.
• Context is missing. Critics noted that many of these peoples face land loss, large dams, mining and violence, none of which appear in the photos.
• Some captions were wrong. The headhunter label for the Dani, and the placement of some New Guinea groups in the wrong country, are examples.

None of this means the photographs cannot be enjoyed. They are striking portraits, and many sitters clearly took pride in showing their finest dress. The best way to look at them is as collaborations between a photographer and living communities, not as a record of people about to disappear. Nelson’s later book, Homage to Humanity (2018), shifted toward that approach, adding the voices of the people he photographed.

Learning more

If these portraits make you curious, the most rewarding next step is to hear from the communities themselves. Many now run their own cultural centres, festivals and social media accounts, and organisations such as Survival International publish news and statements from Indigenous peoples around the world. Looking beyond the picture is the best way to respect the people in it.

Sources: Photographs by Jimmy Nelson, Before They Pass Away, first shared online via Bored Panda; Wikipedia: Jimmy Nelson; Survival International: responses to Before They Pass Away; Wikipedia articles on the Kazakh eagle hunters, Dukha, Chukchi, Nenets, Himba, Samburu, Maasai, Mursi, Daasanach, Karo, Hamar and Banna, Huli, Asaro Mudmen, Goroka Show, Dani, Rabari, Ladakh, Brokpa, Tā moko, Vanuatu and Gaucho.

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