For the controversial image presentation, I chose an image from English photographer Jimmy Nelson’s book Before They Pass Away, published in 2013, about the culture and inhabitants of tribal community. The image itself is a close portrait of two Huaorani girls from eastern Ecuador. Standing in a vague setting of their residence, they are staring directly at the camera. No garments are worn except the traditional face paint, few accessories and a conspicuous leave cover, tied to a string on their waist.

Figure 1: Nelson, J. (2013) Huaorani Girls [photograph].

No one was questioning Nelson’s efforts when his work was being published – the controversy, however, lied in both the internal and external context of the photograph. First and most noticeably, the leave cover worn to cover genital area has been regarded, by Stephen Corry from Survival International, as extremely abnormal, seemingly to protect their modesty (John Vidal, 2014). Moreover, since the first encounter with Huaorani tribes in 1956, some contacted communities has been accepting lifestyle from the outside, which is to say full nudity can now rarely be witnessed (Stephen Corry, 2014). Given that the tribe Nelson visited is listed among the most contacted ones, the false presentation – full nudity with awkward cover – became the first to widely receive criticism.

The incorrect visual statement, in the name of pure documentation as claimed, has thus shed shadow over Nelson’s professionalism and intension. The configuration of his photos provokes doubts of staging tribal people and intentionally removing evidence of western industrial manufacture, to retrieve the aura of exoticism regardless of the real situation.

The behavior of over-exoticization has already appeared before in works of Edward S. Curtis. The American photographer is an enologist himself, whose academic studies in indigenous communities, however, still fails to justify his ‘arranged scenes’ and ‘offensive photographic manipulation’ (Teju Cole, 2017). In article Getting Others Right, photography critic Teju Cole compares Curtis with Indian photographer Horace Poolaw, and further raises the questions of the appropriate perspective of documenting tribal culture and people. ‘Is the lesson here that the truth of a given community can only be delivered by an insider?’ he asked (Teju Cole, 2017).

Figure 2: Curtis, E. S. (1930) Red Bird – Cheyenne [photograph].

Figure 3: Poolaw, H. (1928) Trecil Poolaw Unap [photograph].

As an outsider, Jimmy Nelson’s portrait is accused of romanticizing the real images, as to commodifying them for consumption – he did sell them as coffee-table books. Therefore, his claim of preserving the ‘purity’ becomes doubtful. Moreover, considering from Native American’s long history of being culturally appropriated, it is understandable that Nelson has undergone huge attack. After long years of oppression, not only are Native American still awaiting official recompense, their suffering is not diminishing at all. Their culture has gained little due respect but only been manipulated for mostly commercial or recreational purpose.

While suspiciously exploiting the tribal culture for own creation, a suggestive message from Nelson’s image is even more intolerable, especially for those from the communities portrayed, that tribal people are ‘passing away’. Positioned as generations ago, while barely linked to modern society, the tribes are depicted as still isolated and primitive. Therefore, their vanishing is presented as inevitable natural process, which overlooks or even rationalizes the industrial destruction (Stephen Corry, 2014).

Hence, the criticism is predictable and reasonable. Jimmy Nelson defends himself that he wants to show nothing but his personal perception, from purely aesthetic rather than factual perspective, the works of which are also open for interpretation (John Vidal, 2014). However, it remains to be discussed whether creation, especially those concerning certain communities and historical events, has the priority beyond moral limitation.

Reference:

Cole, T. (2017) ‘Getting Others Right’, The New York Times, 13 June. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/magazine/getting-others-right.html(Accessed: 14 May 2019).

Corry, S. (2014) ‘Turning a Blind Eye to Pure Old Vibrations’, Truthout, 1 June. Available at: https://truthout.org/articles/turning-a-blind-eye-to-pure-old-vibrations/(Accessed: 15 May 2019).

Curtis, E. S. (1930) Red Bird – Cheyenne. Available at: http://curtis.library.northwestern.edu/curtis/viewPage.cgi?showp=1&size=2&id=nai.19.book.00000130.p&volume=19(Accessed: 31 May 2019).

Nelson, J. (2013) Huaorani Girls. Available at: https://www.jimmynelson.com/people/huaorani(Accessed: 14 May 2019).

Poolaw, H. (1928) Trecil Poolaw Unap. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/magazine/getting-others-right.html(Accessed: 14 May 2019).

Vidal, J. (2014) ‘Photographer criticised by indigenous people and Survival International’, The Guardian, 29 October. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/oct/29/jimmy-nelson-indigenous-people-survival-international(Accessed: 14 May 2019).