The “Art” of Communication by Jimmy Nelson
According to Oprah Winfrey, “Great communication begins with connection.” I can relate this quote of hers to what Jimmy Nelson tried to point out in his video, “The "Art" of Communication.” Watching that specific video of his, had me undergo a journey of self-reflection listening to his own journey of it as well. It made me change how I view the whole concept of communicating with others. Specifically shedding new light on my entire perspective about it.
Giving the video a deeper analysis, he wasn’t only trying to just share his failed past experiences, otherwise, what I’d be writing right now would’ve shifted completely. Carrying on, what he did was more than sharing what he shouldn’t have done, he had us completely immersed in it as well, immersed in what happened more than his mistakes, immersed specifically in something meaningful he learned along the way. Moreover, what made his talk even more enticing, was how full of life he was with his gestures and body language, and also how he also showed graphics.
This particular story of his, started off with him going to Northern Mongolia to meet the Tsaatan Tribe, not anticipating a roadblock occurring that’ll prolong his goal that made him go there in the first place, and guess what roadblock it is? Yeah, it’s with communication. Specifically, him not negotiating things well with his supposed to be interpreter in the trip, therefore disabling him from communicating with the tribe verbally, making their 2-week trip almost useless, until, they just went along with the circumstances, and that’s when things started moving at a faster pace. Though not being able to communicate well with the tribe, Nelson still managed to make progress and made a connection with them. I mean, slow progress is better than no progress, right? With humility already starting to form, contact did as well, and then followed the success of his initial goal, which was to document or photograph the tribe. Though requiring a lot of communication, specifically nonverbal for his case, he still handled the whole situation well.
As he progressed further, he shared more of his experiences with other tribes from all over the world, and how he managed to make a connection with them, though having difficulty in communicating with them. But what sparked my interest once again, was when he met up with the Himba tribe. Upon listening more, i can indeed tell that he values humility, which is why he was able to establish contact and a connection with the tribe, to the point that he even wanted to go back to them, and show them what everything he did back then was for. Obviously showing, that as a photographer, he has huge respect for them, the indigenous people he’s working with, no, it’s even more than that, he’s already connecting with them at a deeper level, as to why even the tribe’s interested in what he has to show to them, also being thankful that Nelson never forgot about them and instead showed that he values them.
"Until you truly let go, until you truly form a humility, can you find an empathy, and in that empathy, you can find a contact, and in that contact, you can discover who you truly are and who the people are around you,” said Nelson. This specific statement summarizes everything well, it being the moral of his experiences. And that just proves how detailed communication really is, how it’s more than just talking, how it’s about the understanding that goes behind every step, the usage of humility and respect to form a deep connection with one another. With that being said, I’ll never look at communication the same way again.
