Research 3 - James Mollison

I visited the Herbert Gallery in August as I had seen advertised an exhibition called Face to Face.  This consisted of portraits by James Mollison.  He had photographed chimpanzees, orangutans, bonobos and gorillas in different countries: The Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon and Indonesia.   He did this because "While watching a nature programme on primates I was struck by their facial similarity to our own.  Humans are clearly different to animals, but the great apes inhabit that grey area between man and animal.  I thought it would be interesting to try and photograph gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans using the aesthetic of the passport photograph - its ubiquitous style inferring the idea of identity" (quote from www.jamesmollison.com)


All the photographs in the exhibition were 3 metres high x 2 metres and what a striking impact on walking in the door.  They all did look similar but each primate had it's own story - often very sad.   On looking at the pictures I thought if you were to cover the eyes and just have the mouth showing, it could easily be human.   I went round each one trying to decide if it were male or female and I got quite a few wrong.  What i thought looked female just wasn't.  For example the picture on the first row below, 2nd from the left I thought was definately male because it is dark and ferouscious looking and I thought a female couldn't possibly look like that.  I was wrong.

I said in my introduction that I loved photos that are natural and unusual and these definately are.  I have looked at other work that James has done and some of his other exhibitions include "The Disciples", "Cocoa Pickers" and Hunger.    James was born in 1973 in Kenya but grew up in England.  He studied Art and Design at Oxford Brookes University and then film and photography at Newport School of Art and Design.   He moved to Italy to work for Benetton in their creative lab.   Whenever I have seen a Benetton advertisement they are vivid in colour, sometimes controversial and unique.  James' project "The Disciples" reminds me of Bennetton work: he spent 3 years photgraphing people outside of concerts. He then presented these images on gigantic boards with upto 6 people on, sometimes the same person.  His work has been published internationally in magazines; he has published books and exhibits his work in galleries all over the world. 

All of the work I have seen of his is portraits be they of humans or animals (primarily humans). I also feel there is an underlying theme of wanting to show the world how our fellow human beings (or animals) live and suffer or are abandoned in some way - his project hunger is about the famine in Ehtopia; his project about Pablo Escabar was about one man and his effect on other people through the drugs trade he ran; The Cocoa Pickers working in Côte d’Ivoire and Where Children Sleep a book for children to show them where other children around the sleep.  

One of James' books was reviewed in the Telegraph - click on the link below to see some of the photographs in this book http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/photography/8063624/Where-children-sleep.html.

All the pictures shown and information about James are taken from http://www.jamesmollison.com/