John Kung

The Mentawai, Behind the Scenes Documentary from Joey L on Vimeo.

Fantastic behind the scenes video of photographer Joey L with the Mentawai tribe of Indonesia. Even if the name doesn’t ring a bell, no doubt you’ve seen his work. He shot the Twilight series movie posters that graced the walls and bus stops all around the world, and that was when he was 18. He has also travelled and stayed with the tribespeople of Omo Valley in Ethiopia, which you can see here at Time magazine.

For this trip Joey spent time with the Mentawai, a tribe indigenous to Indonesia. The video is great not just for the insight into the minds and lives of these people, but is packed with lessons to learn. Some that I took away with me are:

Be respectful. Be respectful of your subject. Be respectful of the their point of view, respect that you want something of them that they don’t have to give. Joey didn’t go in there flashes blazing, he took to the time to integrate himself into their lives before pulling out the camera, and they awarded him with their friendship and trust, as well as some incredible photographic opportunities. This is the same when working with subjects regardless of the situation. You need to build the trust and rapport with your subject to get the very best out of them, and you can’t make amazing images unless you have the trust of the person you are photographing. Even if you only have five minutes with someone, they have to feel comfortable and trust that you can get a great image of them.

Be prepared. Have spares, have backups, have people around you that can help if something goes off plan. Joey had guides that can not only lead them to the Mentawai geographically, but also personally. He had an assistant that could speak Bahasa Indonesia and is familiar with the customs. It didn’t look like anything untoward happened, but if it did those people would be life savers.

Get to the gym! Man, watching them carrying all that gear through the jungle made my back hurt!