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Jimmy Nelson Figurative Photography

British, b. 1967

Over the course of a prolific career that has spanned more than 30 years, artist Jimmy Nelson has captured profound and enduring images of the world’s most remote tribes and indigenous peoples. His rich color photography, portraits and landscapes seek to tell the stories of many diverse cultures and explore the impact of the modern age on their traditions and life.

Nelson was born in 1967 in Sevenoaks, Kent, and spent his early childhood traveling the world with his father, a geologist. At the age of seven, Nelson was sent to a Jesuit boarding school in the North of England, where he spent the next ten years of his life.

Nelson journeyed to Tibet in his late teens — he had lost all of his hair owing to an autoimmune disorder and thought that the Tibetan monks might be more accepting of his appearance than his affluent British classmates were. The year-long trip afforded him the opportunity to photograph the East Asian region, which had only recently opened its borders to foreigners. In 1988, Nelson’s images were published in several worldwide publications, garnering international acclaim. He secured assignments to cover a range of world events as a photojournalist — among them, Russia’s involvement with Afghanistan and the war in former Yugoslavia.

In 1994, Nelson and his wife, Ashkaine, embarked on an ambitious project titled “Literary Portraits of China,” which captured images of what were then the country’s lesser seen corners. It took 40 months to complete, and his photos were later exhibited at the People’s Palace in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.

Later, Nelson traveled the globe to not only document indigenous cultures through his figurative photography but to discover how they were surviving in the contemporary world. This project resulted in his first book, Before They Pass Away. It was published in 2013 and an expanded edition debuted in 2020. The Jimmy Nelson Foundation was established in 2016 in order to raise awareness about the subjects of Nelson’s photography. Homage to Humanity, which features hundreds of photos of indigenous people all over the world, was published in 2018.

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Artist: Jimmy Nelson
Jimmy Nelson - XIX 330 // XIX Tibet, Photography 2011, Printed After
By Jimmy Nelson
Located in Greenwich, CT
"XIX 330 v- Buddhist Monks - Ganden Monastery - Tibet, 2011 The approximate 5.5 million Tibetans are an ethnic group with specific traditions. Archaeological and geological discover...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Jimmy Nelson Figurative Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, C Print, Digital Pigment

Jimmy Nelson - XXII 3 // XXII China, Photography 2016, Printed After
By Jimmy Nelson
Located in Greenwich, CT
XXII 3 Longhorn Miao In the Southern Chinese province of Guiyang there is a small number of exceptionally remote and traditional villages of the Miao people. The second one Jimmy vi...
Category

2010s Contemporary Jimmy Nelson Figurative Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Jimmy Nelson - XXII 2 // XXII China, Photography 2016, Printed After
By Jimmy Nelson
Located in Greenwich, CT
XXII 2 Longhorn Miao In the Southern Chinese province of Guiyang there is a small number of exceptionally remote and traditional villages of the Miao people. The first one Jimmy vis...
Category

2010s Contemporary Jimmy Nelson Figurative Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Jimmy Nelson - XXIV 2 // XXIV India, Photography 2016, Printed After
By Jimmy Nelson
Located in Greenwich, CT
XXIV 2 Sadhu's in Ganges Sadhus (meaning ‘good men’) are devoutly religious Hindus living throughout India. They wear orange clothes representing the colour of the fire in which the...
Category

2010s Contemporary Jimmy Nelson Figurative Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Jimmy Nelson - XXII 4 // XXII China, Photography 2016, Printed After
By Jimmy Nelson
Located in Greenwich, CT
XXII 4 LangDe Miao Village In the Southern Chinese province of Guiyang there is a small number of exceptionally remote and traditional villages of the Miao people. The first one Jim...
Category

2010s Contemporary Jimmy Nelson Figurative Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Jimmy Nelson - XXV 2 // XXV South Sudan, Photography 2016, Printed After
By Jimmy Nelson
Located in Greenwich, CT
XXV 2 Bero, Mundari, Mayong South Sudan is the world’s youngest nation – it became independent in 2011, after Sudan was torn apart by violence. The legacy of these unstable years co...
Category

2010s Contemporary Jimmy Nelson Figurative Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Jimmy Nelson - XXVI 1 // XXVI French Polynesia, Photography 2016, Printed After
By Jimmy Nelson
Located in Greenwich, CT
XXVI 1 Ua Pou, Marquesas Islands Having been fascinated by traditional bodily decoration for many years, it was no wonder that Jimmy would eventually end up photographing the Marque...
Category

2010s Contemporary Jimmy Nelson Figurative Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Jimmy Nelson - XXIV 9 // XXIV India, Photography 2016, Printed After
By Jimmy Nelson
Located in Greenwich, CT
XXIV 9 Sadhu, Haridwar Sadhus (meaning ‘good men’) are devoutly religious Hindus living throughout India. They wear orange clothes representing the colour of the fire in which they ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Jimmy Nelson Figurative Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Jimmy Nelson - XXIV 11 // XXIV India, Photography 2016, Printed After
By Jimmy Nelson
Located in Greenwich, CT
XXIV 11 Sadhu, Haridwar, India 2016 Sadhus (meaning ‘good men’) are devoutly religious Hindus living throughout India. They wear orange clothes representing the colour of the fire i...
Category

2010s Contemporary Jimmy Nelson Figurative Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Jimmy Nelson - XXVI 5 // XXVI French Polynesia, Photography 2016, Printed After
By Jimmy Nelson
Located in Greenwich, CT
XXVI 5 Te Pua O Feani, Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands French Polynesia Having been fascinated by traditional bodily decoration for many years, it was no wonder that Jimmy would ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Jimmy Nelson Figurative Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Jimmy Nelson - XXVI 2 // XXVI French Polynesia, Photography 2016, Printed After
By Jimmy Nelson
Located in Greenwich, CT
XXVI 2 Te Pua O Feani, Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands French Polynesia Having been fascinated by traditional bodily decoration for many years, it was no wonder that Jimmy would...
Category

2010s Contemporary Jimmy Nelson Figurative Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Jimmy Nelson - XXVIII 53 // XXVIII Wodaabe, Chad, 2018, Printed After
By Jimmy Nelson
Located in Greenwich, CT
"The nomadic Wodaabe community belong to the Fulani ethnic group, who are distributed across at least ten North-African countries. Chad is home to many of the Wodaabe. Far from the c...
Category

2010s Contemporary Jimmy Nelson Figurative Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Jimmy Nelson - XXXIX 2 // XXXIX Siberia, Nenets, Photography 2018, Printed After
By Jimmy Nelson
Located in Greenwich, CT
XXXIX 2, Pavel & Jello Khudi, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous district, Siberia 2018 It seems implausible that people could survive the extreme blizzards, sunless days and excruciatingly l...
Category

2010s Contemporary Jimmy Nelson Figurative Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper

Jimmy Nelson - XXVIII 33 // XXVIII Wodaabe, Chad, 2018, Printed After
By Jimmy Nelson
Located in Greenwich, CT
"XXVIII 33 Ousman Gambo, Wodaabe, Sudosukai clan The nomadic Wodaabe community belong to the Fulani ethnic group, who are distributed across at least ten North-African countries. Ch...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Jimmy Nelson Figurative Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Jimmy Nelson - XXVIII 24 // XXVIII Wodaabe, Chad, 2016, Printed After
By Jimmy Nelson
Located in Greenwich, CT
"XXVIII 24 Wursak, Soedoe Soechay The nomadic Wodaabe community belong to the Fulani ethnic group, who are distributed across at least ten North-African countries. Chad is home to m...
Category

2010s Contemporary Jimmy Nelson Figurative Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Jimmy Nelson - XXIX 24 // XXIX Bhutan, Photography 2018, Printed After
By Jimmy Nelson
Located in Greenwich, CT
"XXIX 24 Chele La pass, Paro Bhutan 2016 Bhutan’s verdant valleys filled with fluttering prayer flags are surrounded by the high, snow-peaked mountains that have helped isolate the...
Category

2010s Contemporary Jimmy Nelson Figurative Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

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Duke Of Beaufort Hunt Gloucestershire England 1985 by Homer Sykes oversize 60 x 40 inches / 151 x 101 cm paper size signed limited edition print edition of 5 only this size printed 2022 Certificate of authenticity provided Note Other sizes available Fox hunting, the Duke of Beaufort hunt. In his black silk top hat, and wearing the traditional distinctive Blue and Buff, the colours of the Duke of Beaufort Hunt, a subscribers walks his horse back across the Badminton Park. Huntsmen and Whippers-In wear green. Badminton, Gloucestershire, England circa December 1985. Homer Sykes Sykes's father, Homer Warwick Sykes, was a Canadian-born American of English extraction who worked for the China National Aviation Corporation in Shanghai; his mother, Helen Grimmitt, was Canadian-born and raised in Hong Kong. The couple were married in August 1947, but in June 1948, in an early stage of his wife's pregnancy, Homer was killed in an accident at Lunghua airfield. Helen returned to her family home in Vancouver, and the son was born three weeks later, in 1949.[1][2] When the boy's mother remarried in 1954, the family moved to England.[3] Homer was a keen photographer as a teenager, with a darkroom both at home and at boarding school. In 1968 he started a three-year course at the London College of Printing (LCP),[1][3] while sharing a house in St John's Wood.[4] In the summer vacation during his first year, he went to New York, and was impressed by the work of current photographers – Cartier-Bresson, Davidson, Friedlander, Frank, Uzzle and Winogrand – that he saw at the Museum of Modern Art.[3] Solo exhibitions "Traditional British Calendar Customs", Arnolfini Gallery (Bristol), 1977;[14] Side Gallery (Newcastle), 31 August – 25 September 1977.[15] "Shanghai Odyssey", Open Eye Gallery (Liverpool), 24 May – 20 June 2003.[14][16] Festival of Photography and Contemporary Art (Biella), 2005.[14] "On the Road Again", Hereford Town Hall (Hereford Photography Festival), 2002.[17] "Green Man and Friends, photographs from the 1970s", WPS (Hastings), 2009.[18] "England 1970–1980", Maison de la photographie Robert Doisneau (Gentilly, Paris), 27 June – 12 October 2014.[10][11][19][20] "My Britain 1970–1980", Les Douches la Galerie, Paris. 5 September – 31 October 2015.[21][22][23] "Once a Year – Homer Sykes", Lucy Bell Gallery, St Leonards-on-Sea, May–June 2021[24] Other exhibitions "Personal Views 1850–1970", British Council touring exhibition, 1970.[3] "Traditional Country Customs" (with work by Benjamin Stone), ICA (London), 1971.[3][14] "Young British Photographers", Museum of Modern Art (Oxford), 1971.[14] Exhibition of photographs by Stone and Sykes of festivals, customs and pageants, Southampton and Birmingham, 1973.[7] "Reportage Fotografen", Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts (Vienna), 1978.[14] "Il Regno Unito si diverte". British Council, Milan, 1981. With Chris Steele-Perkins and Patrick Ward.[25] "The Other Britain", National Theatre (London), and touring in Britain, 1982.[26] "A British Eye on the World", Museum of Modern Art (Rio de Janeiro), 1986.[14] "Viva, une agence photographique", Jeu de Paume (Paris), 2007.[27][28] "How We Are: Photographing Britain." Tate Britain (London), 2007.[29][30] "No Such Thing as Society: Photography in Britain 1968–1987", Aberystwyth Arts Centre; Tullie House (Carlisle); Ujazdów Castle (Warsaw).[31] "Unpopular culture." De La Warr Pavilion (Bexhill), 2008.[32] "The Other Britain Revisited: Photographs from New Society", Victoria and Albert Museum, 2010.[26] "Goodbye London: Radical art and politics in the seventies", Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (Berlin), 26 June – 15 August 2010. With Stuart Brisley, Victor Burgin, David Hall, Margaret Harrison, Derek Jarman...
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1990s Modern Jimmy Nelson Figurative Photography

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Jimmy Nelson figurative photography for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Jimmy Nelson figurative photography available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Jimmy Nelson in pigment print, archival pigment print, paper and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 21st century and contemporary and is mostly associated with the contemporary style. Not every interior allows for large Jimmy Nelson figurative photography, so small editions measuring 25 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Miles Aldridge, Clare Marie Bailey, and Patty Carroll. Jimmy Nelson figurative photography prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $4,939 and tops out at $5,006, while the average work can sell for $5,006.

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