A magnificent book that will introduce people to a new world, stimulate thinking, and help people to understand better our place in nature in the scheme of things. 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"
– Jane Goodall, founder Jane Goodall Institute, UN Messenger for Peace.
50 great apes – chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and bonobos, our closest biological relatives – are featured in James and Other Apes of portraits photographed over four years in ape sanctuaries in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Germany and the USA. Mainly orphans and victims of the illicit trade in `bushmeat', and representing species whose survival is under threat, each is photographed as a unique individual. With case note biographies, and introduced with a powerful and moving essay by Jane Goodall, James and Other Apes 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'.
James Mollison (b. 1973) has lived in Venice since 1998, working with Benetton's 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. 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.