Flex Mentallo

Timothy Allen, leading photographer for the BBC’s Human Planet: "The patronizing and self-aggrandizing narrative behind ‘Before They’ is literally painful to watch. Fortunately, primitive attitudes like these have been on the endangered list for quite a few years now and it is fair to expect that they will pass away long before any of the cultures Nelson encountered in his project."

New Zealand's Maori community has also expressed its shock at being included in the exhibit and considered close to extinction. Jay Dizzle, Maori blogger: "Your title for the body of work is misleading and the impression people will get is false…I’m simply saying that Maori people are not part of a dying breed and we don’t need to be portrayed as such, for a book… Jimmy Nelson… You take good photos, there’s no doubt about that, but I believe the premise for your book is just plain wrong. I’m telling you here and now, that we’re far from passing away."

Papuan tribal leader Benny Wenda has also criticized Nelson for describing his tribe as "headhunters", when in fact the Dani have never practised cannibalism. Mr Wenda said: “The real headhunters are the Indonesian military who have been killing my people. My people are still strong and we fight for our freedom. We are not ‘passing away,’ we are being killed by the brutal Indonesian soldiers. That is the truth.”

It was not until Nixiwaka Yawanawá, an Amazon Indian from Acre, Brazil protested against the "outrageous" exhibition of Jimmy Nelson's work at London's Atlas Gallery, wearing his ceremonial headdress, that criticism has flared, however. Nixiwaka Yawanawá: "As a tribal person I feel offended by Jimmy Nelson’s work ’Before They Pass Away’. It’s outrageous! We are not passing away but struggling to survive. Industrialized society is trying to destroy us in the name of ‘progress’, but we will keep defending our lands and contributing to the protection of the planet." Yawanawá argues rather than promoting indigenous cultures, this misconstrues their identities. "He is faking, they are fake pictures," he says. Yawanawá argues Nelson's photos conflict with his work to develop public understanding of indigenous people's plight. Yawanawá told Al Jazeera "the photographer is working for himself only, otherwise he would convey the communities' struggle, particularly against government and businesses' theft of their lands."

Nelson defended his work against the criticism of Survival International in an article in the Amateur Photographer saying that every image is a "subjective, creative document of the photographer". He admitted that he staged and directed the individuals, but said that it was done with their co-operation and consent. In an article published in The Times, Nelson defended his book by saying that it was never meant to be reportage, but an "aesthetic, romantic, subjective, iconographic representation of people who are normally represented in a very patronising and demeaning way."

“The images look like a throwback to a past era, but they’re also a contemporary invention,” writes Corry. "The criminal, often genocidal, treatment of many tribal peoples remains underpinned by a portrayal eliciting from us little more than wistful pangs of history lost. Nothing wrong with nostalgia of course, but there’s a lot wrong with presenting crimes against humanity as just another historical inevitability, as natural and unstoppable as Canute’s rising tide."

Corry adds that some of the pictures are “just a photographer’s fantasy, bearing little relationship either to how these people appear now, or how they’ve ever appeared. Of course, rendering people more exotic than they really are is a timeworn tradition.”

Corry says in an essay in online US magazine Truthout that Nelson’s “claim that it’s the ‘irreplaceable ethnographic record of a fast disappearing world’ is wrong – from pretty much every angle”. Corry goes on to allege that Nelson not only presents a fictionalized portrait of tribal people, but more importantly that he glosses over the violence to which many of the tribes pictured are being subjected and fails to mention, that many minority peoples, especially tribal ones, are not "disappearing" but that they are being destroyed through illegal theft of their land and resources.

According to Stephen Corry, director of Survival International, the pictures are more akin to high fashion than reality. (Ironically, Ralph Lauren was so moved and inspired by it, the brand commissioned Nelson to shoot Sanne Vloet wearing tribal adornments in Finnish Lapland in 2105.)

Orla Bakdal, executive director of the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, says while the beautiful photographs stimulate curiosity, he is unable to use them for his work, particularly for documentation. Bakdal says the images fail to show the complexity of the tribes' lives and the often-severe conditions the world's 370 million indigenous people live in. "I think we have to approach this serious issue from different angles. It is not fair to those 370 million people that they are just being exhibited like a tourist attraction and object for a photographer," Bakdal says. A more multi-faceted view - even if by adding written explanations - would provide a fairer representation and best promote understanding with the Western world, he says.

Tiampati, also from the Maasai tribe, says he would also have liked to seen an approach inclusive of more tribal members. "It should have been made through a consultative process so the voice, vision, or ideas of the communities would have been incorporated."

Some indigenous people agree. Michael Tiampati is a member of a Maasai community in southwestern Kenya and a manager for a network of pastoral organisations. He says an outsider's exhibition, including photos of the Maasai wearing piercing red sheets and colossal brown headgear, will help. "It shows the world the reality confronting these communities - the threats to the culture, ways of life and livelihoods," he says.

While Nelson says he has photographed the tribe's past and present, others say he's neglected the fact that he's showing its future, too. And the question has been raised as to whether Nelson's works have best promoted understanding between indigenous groups and the Western world. But Nelson defends his project. "The title is very, very deliberate and it is meant to get people's attention. Something is passing away."

The portraits, some of which are over 2 metres tall, are visually stunning, unashamedly glamorous and have been seen in many of the world’s glossy magazines and leading galleries. They sell for up to £45,000 each.

He admits this meant at times changing what they would traditionally wear - using leaves, for instance, to cover the naked women of the Ecuadorian Waorani tribe, or an uncustomary setting such as the Goroka group in Papua New Guinea posed high among treetops.

He painstakingly arranged compositions, along vast landscapes in bitter conditions. Often, this meant successive shooting days to capture the best ambient light - the only light used. Nelson, who worked in commercial photography for years, wanted his subjects to present themselves at their proudest, and produce photos glorious enough for a fashion magazine.

Nelson spent months to achieve some shots, finding the tribes and gaining their trust. It took two weeks to earn the Kazaks' confidence in order to take their photos.

Jimmy Nelson has photographed 35 tribal peoples around the world for 'Before They Pass Away.'a book selling for £100 or over £5,000 in a limited edition. I bought a copy of the book and first posted some of his photographs in Serendip a few years ago, as part of an essay on the conflict between traditional ways of life and the encroachments of the modern world - in particular, what is happening in South America.

Objectifying the other

Thank you for the thoughtful response, Kelly. After thinking about it, I realize that there is one more angle to bring in, that will bring us full circle....

Stunning copy of one of the best covers in the run, and a break out book (like #33, but more room for growth). IMHO Planets in general are still undervalued, and referring to the census, there are only a handful above 9.4 in existence. The odds of a 9.6 showing up on the market like this today are vanishingly small.

Many thanks Mike! Happy New year to you and all our fellow campers! God bless us, everyone!

"I have never thought to stop 'disappearing.' The society we live in is changing tremendously everyday. The background I use today, might be gone tomorrow."

Liu sees himself as an outsider whose artistic efforts are not appreciated, especially in his home country.