Last tribes on earth

[David]

Originally Posted by Iain

Looks intriguing, does the book in question contain much text? Or is it more of a coffee table, glossy photo type of thing?

Iain, Jimmy Nelson is a photographer, not an anthropologist and this is a book of photographs. There is some writing, no doubt, but this is hardly a treatise of tribes around the world as Mark suggested. However, as a photographer myself, calling it a "coffee table, glossy photo type of thing" seems to miss the point of what good documentary photography is all about. I have only seen a small sampling of the images, but i don't believe you will find a great deal of ethnographic weaponry in the images. What you will find is powerful and beautiful photography of all too quickly vanishing cultures documented much in the way the Edward S. Curtis documented Native American tribes at the end of the 19th century. It's on my amazon wish list for reasons completing unrelated to my collections of weapons.
Here is a link to the project website where you can view many more of the images.
http://www.beforethey.com

[Iain]

Originally Posted by David

Iain, Jimmy Nelson is a photographer, not an anthropologist and this is a book of photographs. There is some writing, no doubt, but this is hardly a treatise of tribes around the world as Mark suggested. However, as a photographer myself, calling it a "coffee table, glossy photo type of thing" seems to miss the point of what good documentary photography is all about. I have only seen a small sampling of the images, but i don't believe you will find a great deal of ethnographic weaponry in the images. What you will find is powerful and beautiful photography of all too quickly vanishing cultures documented much in the way the Edward S. Curtis documented Native American tribes at the end of the 19th century. It's on my amazon wish list for reasons completing unrelated to my collections of weapons.
Here is a link to the project website where you can view many more of the images.
http://www.beforethey.com

Hi David,

My question wasn't bringing into doubt the merit of Nelson's work, I was merely curious if it was purely graphically oriented or comprised of some degree of textual accompaniment.

Oddly enough I studied cinematography and focused on documentaries, so I've got a certain appreciation for the subject although I'm not fortunate enough to make much use of it these days.

Thanks for the link to the project website, much appreciated.