The last of their kind: Photographer traveled the world to capture indigenous tribes and their way of life threatened by modernization


In an ambitious project, British photographer Jimmy Nelson has traveled all over the world to visit 29 indigenous tribes and capture their way of life before it's gone forever.



The result is 'Before They Pass Away', a series of portraits spanning the globe from the Gauchos of Argentina to Chukchi of far northern Siberia.



Nelson photographed these tribes using a 50-year-old plate film camera that captures these people and their environs in stunning clarity.



Kazakh: Three Kazakh men sit on their horses accompanied by their hunting eagles. The Kazakhs are descendants of Turkic, Mongolic and Indo-Iranian tribes Drokpa: Only 2,500 Drokpas live in three small villages between India and Pakistan and are known for public kissing and wife-swapping Tibetans: A group of young Buddhist monks in Tibet wear traditional costume

On his website, Nelson says his goal for the project was to make an ethnographic record 'of a fast disappearing world'.



While he knows that this project won't save these tribes from extinction in the face of the modern world, he hopes it will help keep them alive and practicing their time-honored traditions for longer.



'I want to show these tribes that they are already rich, that they have something that money can’t buy. I would like to demonstrate to them that the Western modern society is not as pure and inspiring as their own culture and values and therefore it is not something to necessarily aspire to,' Nelson told Feature Shoot.



'Even though I am aware that my photographic document will not be able to prevent the eventual disappearance of the tribes, I strongly hope that it adds to the realization that by respecting their natural habitat and way of life, we are able to stretch it as long as possible. I strive to create a visual document that reminds us, and the generations after us, of the beauty of pure and honest living,' Nelson added.



Before They Pass away is available for purchase as a book.

Himba: The Himba live in the arid environment of northern Namibia, surviving the conditions by tending to their herds of cattle

Maori: Tatooing is an important part fo the culture for the Maori tribespeople of New Zealand The Nenets: Nenet men keep warm in the harsh cold of northern Arctic Russia with the help of coats made out of four reindeer skins and reindeer fur called Gus