Customer Reviews

Monkey Portraits

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Some say they're just animals. Others say they're almost human. What is it about monkeys and apes that fascinate us? Whatever the reason, we love them, and this is what Jill Greenberg celebrates in her new photographic collection, Monkey Portraits.

Old world or new, the monkeys and apes are captured in a range of emotions. Somber to silly, bored to brash, these primates will startle you with the depth of their emotions. As Greenberg points out, the beings caught in these intimate portraits can look surprisingly human, expectedly animal, or both. Either way, as you page through, you'll see a set of eyes here or a mouth there that look as though they could belong to someone you know.

Greenberg's skills behind the lens are starkly apparent. She has managed to bring forth a stunning array of emotions generally reserved for human "people." Anyone can take pictures, but Greenberg can go beyond the photo to that moment between breaths where the truly remarkable can be found.

Are monkeys and apes "mere" animals? Are they something more? Bring this stunning volume home and decide for yourself.

Reviewed by Christina Wantz Fixemer
9/6/2006

The photos in this book are stunning, revealing, and thought provoking. That said I wish the silly captions had been left out. They are contrived and instead of revealing something about the subjects end up being an annoyance. Instead of viewing the portraits and searching the faces for some primal connection we're given the photographers attempt at humor. The occasional quotes were far more revealing and thoughtful. Ignore the captions, which fortunately were designed to not be physically intrusive, and instead enjoy searching the faces of these wonderful creatures for the little that separates us.

The response elicited by these stunningly emotional portraits are like nothing I have experienced in years of looking at photographs of animals.
I agree with the reviewer who suggested you ignore the captions. These are prime examples of photographs that transend the 1000 words they may be worth. Priceless.

This book is certainly fun to look at - the photos will crack you up for sure. It will serve to remind you of our relationship to other primates, perhaps sparking an interest, whether you are science-minded or simply curious, and you will want to know more about them - and therein lies my criticism of the book. In my opinion, each photo should be accompanied by a small blurb about the primate, it's habitat, etc.., or at the very least, the species name. Perhaps it was the author's intent to omit such information, in order to minimize perceived differences between humans and other primates, and let the photos serve as an artistic unifier. While I can appreciate that concept, I still want to know what kind of monkey I'm looking at, so I can go find out more about them if I choose.

This is a fantastic book of monkey portraits! Every image is a beautiful view into the humanity of ...MONKEYS!!! I love it!

Standout photos of monkeys and great apes that are interesting, funny and in many cases, arresting. The photographer must have had outstanding rapport with her subjects to get such individualistic images.

Ms. Greenberg's extraordinary talent reminds me why I love monkeys and am proud to be related.

Peter Cavanaugh
wildwednesday.com

I used to date a girl that looked like the picture on page ... No, I'd better not say it.

And we'd probably not get too anthropomorphic about these pictures. Yet looking at them it's hard to not put human emotions and feelings into the body language. They certainly look like they are thinking human thoughts, having human emotions. It's quite amazing to read into what we see here in an eye position, a mouth. It certainly makes you realize that with these, our closest biological cousins, we are not so far separated as perhaps we would like to think.

At any case, if you've missed the idea of this book, it's composed of a bunch of pictures of monkeys and apes. The pictures are mostly shots of their faces, selected to show human like characteristics. Along with the pictures are titles that show what the author thinks the Monkey's expression is showing.

A delightful coffee table book.

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"Monkey Portraits"
by Jill Greenberg
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I thought this book was a real lost opportunity, but also so much so that I found it somewhat offensive, both insulting my intelligence, and the dignity of the primates whose portraits are included. Ms. Greenberg's specialty is taking formal portraits of captive animals, in this case mostly monkeys and apes who work in TV and Hollywood films... That's okay, I guess, these animals have seen plenty of interesting stuff, and have a lot going on in their eyes... The portraits themselves are often quite striking, but what I felt was unfortunate was the captions that went along with them, bland, idiotic stuff, like "MR. SLEEPYHEAD" and "WHOOPSY DAISY!" or "GRUMPY FACE" -- the kind of thing you'd see on a really dumb postcard or on a dingy poster hanging up in a pediatrician's waiting room. Thus, a well laid-out collection of striking, finely composed photographs is reduced to a moronic lowest common denominator and these intelligent, soulful primates are made into mockeries, for no good reason. It's depressing. (Axton)

Our 3 year old loves this book. She seems to especially enjoy trying to interpret the meaning of the various monkey's facial expressions: "...this one is thinking!"; "...this one is crying!"; "...this one is laughing!"; "...this one is tired!". I like the book as a way of showing to our child what human beings really are: Animals.