# Hauntingly beautiful portraits: beforethey.com **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 3, 2014, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hauntingly-beautiful-portraits-beforethey-com/700321 "2014-10-03T23:49:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2014, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hauntingly-beautiful-portraits-beforethey-com/700321/1 "2014-10-03T23:49:38Z")
Anybody else found this? I just stumbled across it and can’t stop looking. Dozens of breathtakingly beautiful pictures of tribal people in their native dress and environment. Hard to pick a favorite, but I’m really liking the Chukchi of Siberia. [Beforethey.com](http://Beforethey.com) ---
**Author:** ![Boogly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Boogly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boogly)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2014, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hauntingly-beautiful-portraits-beforethey-com/700321/2 "2014-10-04T03:55:50Z")
Quite a few of them look like they could be my cousins! The first thing that I noticed is that they are clean shaven. Neckbeards and mustaches help a lot when you are out in the winter weather on snowmachines or behind a dog sled. ETA: Nice find! ---
**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2014, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hauntingly-beautiful-portraits-beforethey-com/700321/3 "2014-10-04T04:56:37Z")
yeah, it’s pretty impressive ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2014, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hauntingly-beautiful-portraits-beforethey-com/700321/4 "2014-10-04T05:09:08Z")
Those really are some beautiful photographs. Fascinating. I could see people I know in all of them, though of course these people are worlds apart from me. Thanks for a good share! ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2014, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hauntingly-beautiful-portraits-beforethey-com/700321/5 "2014-10-04T12:29:50Z")
I’d would make space for the hard copy of this book in a heartbeat… it costs $100 though. Reviews say it is the size of “a tombstone.” May as well put it on my Amazon wish list. Maybe somebody who really loves me will give it to me for Christmas. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2014, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hauntingly-beautiful-portraits-beforethey-com/700321/6 "2014-10-04T14:24:18Z")
Beautiful pictures. Seems a little sentimental and outdated to me, though, as if these “tribes” had been living in perfect picturesque harmony with nature until some nice photographer stumbled upon them last Tuesday. And all those dead-eyed stares into the camera, very othering. Where are the smiles? The people interacting with each other rather than standing blank faced in vaguely manacling groups (okay, there are a few, but a lot of the posing is pretty strange)? Even the text is pretty bad: “But there’s another side of India, one that far fewer people know. It’s the India that lies beyond the city borders, far away from the capitals and tourist attractions. The India that’s remote and pure, secluded and serene.” Oh really? Given that 72% of India lives in rural areas, I suspect lots of “people” know plenty about “remote and pure” rural India. A good source for culture-porn is A Trip Down Memory Lane. They’ve been featuring writers lately, but they have an enormous archive of photo essays on various African communities: > **[TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE](https://kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane.blogspot.com/)** > > Celebrating our African historical personalities,discoveries, achievements and eras as proud people with rich culture, traditions and enlightenment spanning many years. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2014, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hauntingly-beautiful-portraits-beforethey-com/700321/7 "2014-10-04T15:08:04Z")
Well, the Amazon blurb does say that this book is less about cultural accuracy than about the photographer’s obsession with otherness. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2014, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hauntingly-beautiful-portraits-beforethey-com/700321/8 "2014-10-04T15:20:49Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > Well, the Amazon blurb does say that this book is less about cultural accuracy than about the photographer’s obsession with otherness. Haha, Okay, well that does make sense, and he creates a sense of “otherness” pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hauntingly-beautiful-portraits-beforethey-com/700321/9 "2014-10-05T01:01:03Z")
Interesting to note that the Ethiopian ‘primitives’ are packing AK-47s. Perhaps we should update the old canard – “Men make societies. Mr. Kalashnikov makes them equal.”