In 1986, Jimmy Nelson was a young man seeking to find himself, and he in the process, he traveled to Tibet. The journey changed his life, and in many ways that is where the seed for this project was born. The wonder of observing that rich and vibrant culture grew into a desire to document other peoples around the globe - before their ways of life were erased by the inexorable press of modern culture.

Jimmy Nelson writes, "In 2009, I planned to become a guest of 31 secluded and visually unique tribes. I wanted to witness their time-honoured traditions, join in their rituals and discover how the rest of the world is threatening to change their way of life forever. Most importantly, I wanted to create an ambitious aesthetic photographic document that would stand the test of time. A body of work that would be an irreplaceable ethnographic record of a fast disappearing world."

Nelson ventured out of the ordinary and into some of the most remote and inhospitable parts of the globe, an old-fashioned 4x5 film camera in tow, with a simple intention: connect with and experience each culture, and use that connection as a vital link to document these disappearing people, traditions, and values. Braving sub-zero temperatures, climbing mountains, narrowly being missed by a lava eruption, getting caught in a sand-storm while in a plane before an emergency landing - Nelson has managed to succeed in giving us a rare glimpse into the lives of these fascinating people who still live in the same manner their ancestors did, for generation upon millennia.