Acclaimed artist Jimmy Nelson launches virtual art gallery
Acclaimed artist Jimmy Nelson has recently launched a new virtual art gallery. The first show, The Last Sentinels, features more than 15 art works, all brought to life by an audio tour narrated by Jimmy Nelson. The virtual exhibition runs until 8 March and invites visitors to follow the footsteps of Indigenous peoples and to celebrate them as our new role models, while witnessing the awe-inspiring richness of the Indigenous way of life. The Last Sentinels promotes environmental and cultural guardianship by immersing visitors into the world of Indigenous cultures who are protecting the natural planet.
By opening up this digital space, Nelson hopes to lower the barrier that exists in visiting art galleries, especially now that so many are in virtual lockdown. The online space welcomes a global audience to discover his iconic artworks in an innovative way.
“We need to protect Indigenous cultures to protect the planet from ecocide; the red thread connecting all Indigenous communities is their respect for the land,” Nelson says. “This 5% of the population protects 80% of the Earth’s remaining biodiversity. We need these cultures to help save the environment.”
About the artist
Jimmy Nelson (UK, 1967) started working as a photographer in 1987. Having spent ten years at a Jesuit boarding school in the North of England, he set off on his own to traverse the length of Tibet on foot (1985). The journey lasted two years and upon his return his visual diary, featuring revealing images of a previously inaccessible Tibet, was published.
Soon after he was commissioned to cover a variety of culturally newsworthy themes for many of the world-leading publications ranging from the Russian involvement in Afghanistan and the ongoing strife between India and Pakistan in Kashmir to the beginning of the war in former Yugoslavia.
In early 1994, he and his Dutch ex-wife Ashkaine Hora Adema produced Literary Portraits of China. A coffee-table book about all indigenous cultures in China and their translated literature. From 1997 onwards, Jimmy undertook commercial advertising assignments for many of the world’s leading brands. Meanwhile, he spent his whole life accumulating images of indigenous cultures.
In 2010, he began his journey to create the artistic document that became Before They Pass Away, which was published in October 2013. Its success and the responses to it have enabled and encouraged Nelson to continue this journey. In October 2018, he published the first interactive book, Homage to Humanity, for which he visited another unique 34 indigenous cultures around the globe. The book is accompanied by the 2019 Webby Award-winning mobile application that makes it possible to scan every image in the book and bring them to life with exclusive films, interviews and 360 ̊ film material. This allows people to see the making of the work and to understand the process behind it.
Today, Nelson uses an 8x10 analogue plate camera to bring the project to its next level. He strongly believes that if you change the way you look at people, the people you look at change. And if that change is powerful enough, it will gather momentum to affect the whole of humanity. A message that today he is promoting through talks at international conferences and museum exhibitions. With the proceedings of his art projects, the Jimmy Nelson Foundation was set up to take it a step further in supporting the communities on the ground.
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