Synopses & Reviews
From Jane Goodall's Introduction:
In 1859 Darwin shocked much of the world with his theory of evolution. Most people now accept the idea that we have evolved not from the modern great apes chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans but a common ancestor: a chimp-like human-like creature who lived some six to seven million years ago. Recent research has revealed startling similarities in the structure of DNA in apes and humans. We differ from chimpanzees by only about one per cent. Chimpanzees and bonobos are closer to humans than they are to gorillas. All three African great apes show more similarities to us than to orangutans.
In most of the places where they range, the great apes face extinction within the next ten to fifteen years if we do not act to save them. There were probably close to two million chimpanzees across Africa 100 years ago. Today there are no more than 150,000. They are declining in numbers as a result of ever-growing human populations, constantly encroaching the remaining forests, fragmenting remaining habitats, setting snares and hunting. The situation is even worse for mountain gorillas and orangutans. As wild ape numbers decrease, so the population of orphans in sanctuaries is increasing. Chimpanzees, gorillas and bonobos are being hunted, along with elephants, antelopes and myriad other species, for food and not to feed starving people, but to satisfy a taste for bushmeatamong the urban elite. There is not much meat on an infant ape, so often it will be sold alive, illegally, in the market beside the cut-up body of its mother.
James Mollisons portraits are of the orphans, confiscated from illegal traders, that make up the population of at least nine seven sanctuaries in Africa and Asia. Many of them have seen their mothers killed, and sometimes butchered, in front of them. Each individual ape has his or her own tragic story of pain and trauma. Each one is different. Look into the eyes of each one of them and you will sense their unique personality.
I hope that James and Other Apes will stimulate thinking, and help people to understand better our place in nature. For many it will be a humbling experience. We are different from other animals (as they are different from each other) but not as different as we thought.
((c) Jane Goodall)
Synopsis
James and Other Apes is a collection of 50 close-up portraits of gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans and bonobos man's closest biological relatives. Photographed over a span of four years in seven ape sanctuaries, in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Germany and the USA, they are mainly orphans, victims of the illicit trade in 'bushmeat'. Djeke, Fizi, Gregoire, James, Koto and the others are all photographed as unique individuals while representing species whose survival is under threat. With case note biographies, and introduced with a powerful and moving essay by Jane Goodall, this book celebrates the great apes. The faces that look back at us also raise profound moral and scientific questions including what it means to define ourselves 'human.'
Synopsis
James and Other Apesis a collection of 50 close-up portraits of gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans and bonobos. The images are so strong and the featured apes-all named, with personal histories-so human-like that the viewer calls into question the dividing-line between "man"and "animal."Photographed in sanctuaries across Africa and Asia, the apes featured are mainly victims of the trade in bush meat that threatens to cause their extinction. The work of young British image-maker James Mollison, a photographer working for the Benetton artlab "Fabrica"outside Venice, these images are a moving and powerful argument for the protection of the great apes and endorsed by world-renowned scientist and best-selling author Jane Goodall in her powerful introduction to the book.
About the Author
James Mollison was born in Kenya in 1973. He studied in the UK art and design at Oxford Brookes University, and documentary photography at Newport School of Art and Design. Since 1998, he has lived in Venice, Italy, working with Benettons creative laboratory, Fabrica. His photography for Benetton includes campaign work promoting the United Nations Year of the Volunteer in 2001, and the World Food Programme in 2002 (alongside which he was also Creative Editor of Hunger, a Colors magazine supplement). Previous books of his work include Lavoratori (1999, a study of immigrant workers in the Veneto region of Italy), iO? Bologna! (1999, a celebration of Bologna Football Clubs 90th birthday), and Kosovars (2000, about refugees from the conflict in the Balkans). His photographs have been published by The United Nations Refugee Agency, The World Health Organization, i-D Magazine, The Guardian, Arena, Amica and El Pais.Jane Goodall is the worlds leading authority on chimpanzees. Born in Bournemouth, England, she began her lifelong studies of the chimps of Gombe in Tanzania, in 1960 defying scientific convention by giving them names instead of numbers in recognition of their distinct personalities. Her pioneering revelations about chimpsbehaviour include the first record of their using and making tools. In 1977, she founded the Jane Goodall Institute, now active throughout the world arguing for the power of each of us to make a difference to all living things. With many awards for her tireless work on behalf of chimpanzees, she was appointed UN Messenger of Peace in 2002. Her extensive list of publications includes The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behaviour (Harvard, 1990), the culmination of her work and recognised as the definitive study of chimpanzees.