The Khampa: Tim Roodenrys

“In Sumba, I was being sucked by the waves onto these boulders. It was the only time in my life that I felt out of my depth, I was conscious that I could die, it felt too dangerous. It stayed in my mind for a long while after…”

Whatever the circumstances, contemplating his own mortality certainly seems to have given him an enviable calm. This aura of peacefulness no doubt came in handy when approaching the subjects in ‘Khampa’, a volume of exquisite portraits and landscapes documenting Tim’s time spent with Tibetan nomads in Kham province, in North Eastern Tibet.

Tibet is a place few people ever get to see, let alone spend any amount of time travelling in, yet Roodenrys has managed to spend time getting to know his subjects in the course of a project that has spanned 8 years. From a first trip in 2001 at the age of 21, he recalls the 24-hour bus ride that ended with a life changing vista: ‘I woke up and saw the most beautiful blue sky I’d ever seen in my life. There was a big stupa (Buddhist worshipping structure) and I fell in love with Tibet. There was an instant resonance for me.’ 

“Tim decided that to do his subjects justice he would have to, as he puts it ‘lose my Western mind’. It was a process of shedding ‘to be like a Khampa, including no Western music or comforts.”

Living in a tent with the nomadic tribesmen of the Kham region of North Eastern Tibet, ‘The Khampa’, Tim tried to absorb as much of the culture, traditions and language as he could in the two months. And it shows. The work has both a ‘stillness’, and a vastness to it, perfectly encapsulating the Tibetan spaces – exterior and interior.

Tim decided that to do his subjects justice he would have to, as he puts it ‘lose my Western mind’. It was a process of shedding ‘to be like a Khampa, including no Western music or comforts. It became a process of just sitting with the land and soaking it up. I didn’t think you could take a beautiful photo of Tibet without being connected with the land.’

‘There is a knowingness in Tim’s pictures that can only really come from someone who has spent time with the environment and with the people within that environment’, says Girlosophy Creative Director Geraldine Mills. ‘His pictures have a poetic and other-worldly feel to them.’  Indeed, the fact that his images are shot on film, imbues them with a depth and a mysticism that digital could never replicate.  ‘Film is precious, you really have to consider what you are shooting.’

Tim shoots with a beautiful old V-series Hasselblad medium format camera and has studied technical photography at Community Colleges and TAFE. Learning to shoot on large format taught him many of his skills, so it comes as no surprise to learn that Tim is a highly sought after photographer’s assistant for many of the top fashion photographers working today, including Troyt Coburn, Derek Henderson, and including the late and great Richard Bailey.

‘The project became really meditative for me, because I was dedicated with trying to connect with the soul of Tibet, I came to understand that the root of the people is the land.’ Roodenrys pauses before allowing, ‘Apart from surfing, Tibet is my obsession.’

‘KHAMPA: Portraits from Eastern Tibet’ is available through Tim’s website, at Ariel Books in Sydney, Readings in Melbourne, and other good book stores. 

Khampa by Tim Roodenrys

Photographer: Tim Roodenrys