The Senator

This is such a simple portrait of Elmo, a Western Lowland silverback
gorilla. The photograph makes no claim to be anything other than
a facial study. The flat lighting helps elevate the textural detail, and
its simplicity is its strength. With less facial hair – especially on the
forehead – than a mountain gorilla and narrower bone structures,
Western Lowland gorillas look more like humans than their cousins
from higher altitudes. They are very firmly on the anthropologist’s
road map.
This photograph could be a painting by a Dutch master, and the
gorilla himself reminds me of some people I know - mostly people
in authority. There is a calm wisdom, a steely fortitude and a whiff
of sovereignty. He is a Senator – a man representing his people.