Photographer Profile ~ Colin Delfosse.

Born in 1981, Colin Delfosse grew up in Brussels, Belgium where he is currently based. He graduated in journalism, then turned to documentary photography in 2006 and cofounded a photographic collective and worked with various agencies. As a freelance photographer, Delfosse keeps a strong focus on meaningful and personal long-term projects in Central Africa.

After his first assignment in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) covering the elections in 2006 he was drawn back to DRC frequently, focusing on social and contemporary issues in the region. His work on Kinshasa’s voodoo wrestlers is the starting point of the international recognition of his work.

In his series ‘Fulu Act’, Colin Delfosse set out to illuminate the ecological and social consequences of the several tones of consumption goods and rubbish that are dumped in the streets of the Congolese capital every year, He started photographing a community of "KinAct" artist-performers dressed in fantastical costumes made almost entirely of recycled materials.

Explaining the concept, Delfosse reveals that “fulu” in Lingala translates to waste or rubbish bin, an apt description for the recycled materials that form the artists’ costumes.

These elaborate costumes, crafted from discarded items, serve as potent symbols of protest against issues such as pollution, poverty, and healthcare deficiencies.

 Junior Mungongu @junior10bureaux - Bolole Nkemi ("I’m the idiot:") costume

Tickson Mbuyi @ticksonmbuyi - in a  condom costume in “Bon Marché” district, a popular nightlife neighborhood in Kinshasa.

Jean Precy Numbi Samba @precy_numbi - costume made from used car parts

Florian Sinanduku @anassfloryan - pill costume, Selembao district

. “In Kinshasa, and in the whole country, finding medicine is still a big issue. You never know where it comes from and what it is made of. You can find pills everywhere, but most of them are coming from China, and came here without any control”, says Florian Sinanduku.

Congolese artist Nada Thsibwabwa @nadatshibwabwa -

Eddy Ekete @eddy_ekete - Limete district

Belgian Photographer Colin Delfosse's "Fulu Act" is a photography series that captures performance artists from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) wearing fantastical costumes they have made from recycled trash. Pictured is Congolese artist Eddy Ekete wearing his tin can suit in the Limete district of DRC's capital city, Kinshasa.

Falonne Mambu @falonneluamba - electric wires costume in Limete district

            Abdoulaye Kinzonzi Kiakanda posing in his plastic water bag costume in Selembao district

 

David Baketimina @davidbaketimina - costume made by artificial hair

Hemock Kilomboshi @papenoirekilomboshi - costume made from recycled materials, Matonge district

                                        Congolese artist Nada Thsibwabwa @nadatshibwabwa  
 

Congolese artist Junior Mungongu posing in his plastic pipes costume in Selembao district, Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo). Trough this performance, Mungongu condemns the obvious political inaction in a city of 13 million inhabitants where single-use plastic is king.

1940's Yakuza Tattoo Culture ~ Horace Bristol

Born in 1908, Horace Bristol studied at the Art Center of Los Angeles, where he was influenced by the work of Edward Steichen and Margaret Bourke-White. He moved to San Francisco, met Ansel Adams and through him befriended fellow photographers including Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange, and Imogen Cunningham.

He became a LIFE magazine contributor in the late 1930s and was soon hired on staff. In 1937 Bristol proposed a story about migrant farm workers in California’s Central Valley—a project that would include accompanying text by novelist John Steinbeck. LIFE turned down the story and Steinbeck withdrew from the partnership to write the story as a novel, which became his masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath but Bristol photographed the region on his own.

In 1941 Bristol became one of five photographers documenting World War II under the direction of Edward Steichen, and he photographed battles in North Africa, Okinawa, and Iwo Jima.

Following his documentation of World War II, Bristol settled in Tokyo, Japan, selling his photographs to magazines in Europe and the United States, and becoming the Asian correspondent to Fortune. He published several books, and established the East-West Photo Agency.

 In 1956, devastated by the suicide of his wife, Bristol burned all the negatives and photographs that he kept at his seaside house in Japan, effectively ending one of the most intense photographic careers of his time. His remaining photographs were packed into footlockers, stored, and left untouched for nearly thirty years. Below are some of his stunning documentation of mid-century tattoo culture in Japan.

Horace Bristol, Yakuza Public Baths, Japan, 1947

During the Edo period (1603 to 1868), criminals in Japan were tattooed by authorities in a practice known as bokkei, making it hard for them to reenter society and find work. This is a primary reason why the tattoo culture of the Yakuza evolved in protest to this branding.

The meaning of Yakuza tattoos are usually related to imagery and symbolism in Japanese art, culture, and religion. The full body suit tattoo, in particular, is a product of Yakuza culture. In the past, it was obligatory in many Yakuza clans for members to get tattoos.

In modern times, the practice is no longer as common. Many Yakuza in the 21st century maintain clean skin to better blend in with society. Conversely, more and more non-Yakuza in Japan are getting tattoos.

Despite these changes, being tattooed is considered a rite of passage for the Yakuza.

1946, Tokyo, Japan ~ A Japanese tattoo artist works on a group of  Yakuza gang members.

Behind the Scenes of the STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI photoshoot by Annie Leibovitz

Daisy Ridley’s Rey hones her lightsaber skills—and channels her inner Force.

Photographed exclusively for V.F. by Annie Leibovitz. For The Last Jedi: costume design by Michael Kaplan; production design by Rick Heinrichs. For V.F.: set design by Mary Howard. For details, go to VF.com/credits.

Daisy Ridley as Rey, at the helm of the Millennium Falcon, with Joonas Suotamo as co-pilot Chewbacca.

Carrie Fisher, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, and Kelly Marie Tran as the rebels General Leia Organa, Poe Dameron, Finn, and Rose Tico, with droid BB-8.

Neal Scanlan (seated), creative supervisor of the Star Wars creature shop, and guests at the Canto Bight casino.

Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, with droids R2-D2 and BB-8 and the Droid Department’s Brian Herring, Dave Chapman, Matthew Denton, Lee Towersey, and Joshua Lee.

Carrie Fisher (General Leia Organa), writer-director Rian Johnson, Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), and producer Kathleen Kennedy with Fisher’s dog, Gary, and Hamill’s daughter’s dog, Millie.

Fisher, who passed away last  December, with daughter Billie Lourd (Lieutenant Kaydel Connix).

Fisher and Hamill, with whom she first worked four decades ago.

Benicio Del Toro, as the shifty “DJ,” a newcomer to the saga.

Adam Driver, in character as Kylo Ren, Han Solo’s son and slayer, wields a crossguard lightsaber.

THE DARK SIDE

First Order leaders General Hux, Kylo Ren, and Captain Phasma, played by Domhnall Gleeson, Adam Driver, and Gwendoline Christie.

Time Magazine's Person of the Year 2016 Issue ~ Trump

For the 2016 Person of the Year issue, TIME commissioned Nadav Kander to photograph President-elect Donald Trump—the person deemed to have most influenced the year’s news, for better or worse—for the cover of the magazine.

 

"It’s hard to measure the scale of his disruption. This real estate baron and casino owner turned reality-TV star and provocateur—never a day spent in public office, never a debt owed to any interest besides his own—now surveys the smoking ruin of a vast political edifice that once housed parties, pundits, donors, pollsters, all those who did not see him coming or take him seriously. Out of this reckoning, Trump is poised to preside, for better or worse." ~ Time Magazine's NANCY GIBBS

 

 

 

Past Issues of Time's Person of the Year:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Behind the Scenes of TIME’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens Photo Shoot

"You get almost star-struck when you meet R2-D2." ~ Photographer Marco Grob

R2D2

Han Solo ( AKA Harrison Ford)

John Boyega poses for Swiss photographer Marco Grob

23-year-old British actress Daisy Ridley. Ridley will star in her first film as the character Rey, a female scavenger who was abandoned by her family when she was five years old, in the upcoming Star Wars sequel.

 Adam Driver plays the villain.The details of Driver’s villain character, Kylo Ren, have remained extremely secretive during the lead-up to the film’s Dec. 18 release. 

Lupita Nyong'o

Gwendoline Christie: Brienne of Tarth on Game of Thrones, Commander Lume in The Hunger Games series and now, Captain Phasma in the upcoming Star Wars sequel. Her costume has particular significance, she tells TIME. "It is rare that women get to play a character and below the neck they are really covered up to the extent that you cannot really see the flesh outlines of their body," she says. "It felt really progressive to me. And consequently I'm very proud to play this part because yeah, you look at her and she looks badass. But also it means something much deeper and it represents something of proper progressive thought." 

Oscar Isaac who takes on the role of X-wing pilot Poe Dameron

Stunning Images of the World’s Last Indigenous Cultures ~ By Jimmy Nelson

Jimmy Nelson's work has taken him from war-torn Afghanistan, Pakistan and the former Yugoslavia to the remotest corners of China and Tibet. But in 2009, the British photographer outdid even himself when he embarked upon a four-year trek around the world—cutting through Amazonian jungles, braving freezing temperatures in Siberia and even surviving a case of meningitis in Ethiopia—to photograph some of the world’s last indigenous tribes. [via Ralph Lauren]

Nelson documented 55 cultures and tribes, many of which are at risk of disappearing forever, often in remote parts of the world, using a 50-year-old 4x5 camera. His book, Before They Pass Away,is a collection of the images he made on his epic journey.

Jimmy Nelson

Jimmy Nelson

A Maasai warrior. "To be a Maasai is to be born into one of the world’s last great warrior cultures," Nelson's website reads. The Maasai people, who live in Tanzania and Kenya, are said to have migrated to the region from Sudan in the 15th century. ~Jimmy Nelson

"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." 
~ Jimmy Nelson

Click on images for a larger view*

Kazakh tribespeople. Descendants of Turkic, Mongolic and Indo-Iranian tribes, as well as the Huns, the Kazakhs are a "semi-nomadic people that have roamed the mountains and valleys of western Mongolia with their herds since the 19th century,"  ~Jimmy Nelson

Members of Namibia's Himba tribe. The Himba are "an ancient tribe of tall, slender and statuesque herders," according to Nelson's website. "Since the 16th century they have lived in scattered settlements, leading a life that has remained unchanged, surviving war and droughts...in one of the most extreme environments on earth." ~ Jimmy Nelson

"I love travelling across the globe and was often sent to far-off countries as a photojournalist and for advertising assignments. I always took the opportunity to capture the local culture and people during those trips. For me, Before They Pass Away was essential because although these tribes will always exist, what is happening is that they are abandoning their culture. Affluence is taking over the undeveloped world, and, in my opinion, there should be a balance somewhere in between. I want to show these tribes that they are already rich, that they have something money can’t buy. What I hope to achieve is bringing attention to these people by showing that they are beautiful."~ Jimmy Nelson

Jimmy Nelson

Jimmy Nelson

Samburu tribespeople. The Samburu tribe lives in northern Kenya. Nelson told HuffPost that Samburu men are so powerful and at one with nature that they've been known to use their bare hands to kill lions that attack their camels.~ Jimmy Nelson

 Māori ~Jimmy Nelson

The Huli warriors in Papua New Guinea. According to Nelson, the Huli tribe has shrunk by 90 percent in the last few decades, largely due to a mass migration to towns and cities. ~ Jimmy Nelson

Jimmy Nelson

“What’s interesting about all these people—despite the differences in geography, customs and history—is that they live in balance with the environment and have achieved the perfect harmony that everyone in the West dreams of.” ~ Jimmy Nelson

The Himba ~ Jimmy Nelson

Southwest Ethiopia ~ Jimmy Nelson

Jimmy Nelson

A Nenet tribesman. The Nenets are reindeer herders who live in the Yamal peninsula of northwest Siberia. The Nenets have thrived in Siberia for more than a millennium, living in temperatures that range from minus 50 degrees Celcius in winter to 35 degrees Celcius in summer, per Nelson's website. Every year, the Nenets undertake a migration of over a 1,000 km, a distance that includes a 48 km crossing of the frozen Ob River.

A Mursi tribesman. The nomadic Mursi tribe lives in southwestern Ethiopia.~Jimmy Nelson

Jimmy Nelson using his 50-year-old large format camera ( Linhof?) film camera in Papua New Guinea.

To purchase Jimmy Nelson’s book, Before They Pass Away, see link below: 
Before They Pass Away

  

For more information about Jimmy Nelson and the Before They Pass Away project, please visitwww.beforethey.com.