Comments on: Portraits of Apes and Monkeys

Portraits of Apes and Monkeys

Kattullus — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 08:57:35 -0800

Incredibly expressive portraits of apes and monkeys by photographer Jill Greenberg whose pictures of crying babies raised heckles last year.

By: DU

DU — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:04:00 -0800

Consider this heckle raised: LERN 2 SPEL!!!

By: tommasz

tommasz — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:07:18 -0800

Because no one cares if you make a monkey cry?

By: quonsar

quonsar — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:08:01 -0800

STOP HACKLING THE POSTER.

By: Foci for Analysis

Foci for Analysis — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:09:22 -0800

Heh, that's hot :)

By: mazola

mazola — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:16:46 -0800

I don't know much about art but I know what I like, and I'd hang these in my rumpus room.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:17:18 -0800

Well, I guess that's what I get for making a dumb pun. My punishment, if you will. Ow! Ow! Stop hitting me! I couldn't resist, I'm sorry! Stop hitting me! Ow!

By: docpops

docpops — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:17:39 -0800

The cloying titles diminish quite a few of these.

By: yhbc

yhbc — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:19:17 -0800

If only they were playing poker . . .

By: adgnyc

adgnyc — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:19:23 -0800

Agree about the cloying titles: one step away from "Hang in there, baby" poster.

By: katillathehun

katillathehun — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:19:45 -0800

Herman Munster!

By: Baby_Balrog

Baby_Balrog — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:24:03 -0800

lolmonkeys

By: Pollomacho

Pollomacho — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:28:29 -0800

I hate her earlier work not because I think it's bad. It's just that I have to put up with my own images of this every night when I get off of work and I'm just trying to get some fucking sleep!

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:31:49 -0800

Dear Jill Greenberg, Put the fucking airbrush down!

By: doctor_negative

doctor_negative — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:32:27 -0800

I want an orangutan. He or she could come to work with me and liven up the meetings by making farting noises at inappropriate times.

By: RavinDave

RavinDave — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:33:26 -0800

Okay ... What exactly is the media? Photography? They look like a cross between pastels and airbrushing.

By: voltairemodern

voltairemodern — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:34:37 -0800

O face

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:36:55 -0800

Put the fucking airbrush down! Think so? Where? I'd think if she was going to go there she'd fudge the eye reflections that give away her lighting techniques. Looks like her dominant source is the ring flash, which gives a flattened doll-like look.

By: poweredbybeard

poweredbybeard — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:40:02 -0800

These are lovely. Of course the first instinct is to say, they're so much like is, but maybe that's not the point. I suspect - perhaps like all photography, but especially here - they're saying at least as much about the viewer as they are about the monkeys.

By: Malor

Malor — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:44:21 -0800

Yeah, with all the post-processing she's doing on these, I was seriously wondering if some of the images were computer-generated. Most aren't offensive to my untrained eye, but if even I can see that some are way overdone, my presumption is that most of them probably are.

By: Divine_Wino

Divine_Wino — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:45:43 -0800

I was watching Unforgiven last week and I was really enjoying it (as I have every time I've seen it). I was really getting into the mood, Eastwood is so empty in that film, just a bundle of manners and intentions and the worst kind of masculine loyalty (I love you enough to avenge you, but not enough not to get you killed), a real pitch black Film Noir character (also as a meditation on alcoholism, the way a person can use booze to alter not just their personality, but their conscience and abilities, with the full knowledge that they are doing that). The ending especially, where he goes on the killing spree in the bar, really got to me - just bleak, bleak, bleak- and then a switch flipped in my brain and I wished that the movie would be remade so that he could have an orangutan sidekick. That would have been amazing.

By: poweredbybeard

poweredbybeard — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:47:47 -0800

Everyone should be glad we don't have IMG here anymore. Otherwise I would be using this in response to about, oh, a third of all posts.

By: slimepuppy

slimepuppy — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:51:59 -0800

I love you Divine_Wino.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:53:08 -0800

They are extraordinary portraits. Incredible, silky, touchable detail. Amazing range of emotions and expressions. The glamour shot aspect adds a strange, fascinating dimension.

By: BeerFilter

BeerFilter — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:55:23 -0800

I couldn't resist.

By: photoslob

photoslob — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:57:07 -0800

There may be some post being done to these images but for the most part they look the way they do because of the lighting.

By: Pollomacho

Pollomacho — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:02:02 -0800

and then a switch flipped in my brain and I wished that the movie would be remade so that he could have an orangutan sidekick. I'd go see that, especially for the part where he euthanizes the orangutan!

By: RavinDave

RavinDave — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:02:35 -0800

Yeah ... I saw "Unforgiven" last week too. It was right after "The Bobby Flay Story" starring Paul Reiser. Or was it "The Paul Reiser Story" starring Bobby Flay? Now, back to our thread:

By: beaucoupkevin

beaucoupkevin — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:04:14 -0800

I've got the book of portraits these were taken from. It's treasured. I hold it every day and thank God I live in a world with monkeys.

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:06:44 -0800

Cool, she managed to leech most of the life outta her subjects, just like most glamour photography.

By: Richat

Richat — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:07:10 -0800

This one reminds me, rather strongly, of a Far Side cartoon. They do look pretty processed, but I'm no expert...maybe it is just lighting?

By: MikeHoegeman

MikeHoegeman — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:10:52 -0800

I'm pretty sure the chimp is 'cheetah'.

By: Sterling Hoyt

Sterling Hoyt — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:11:03 -0800

I agree that they don't look very Photoshopped to me; studio lighting will create a lot of these effects. I guess it's a product of the digital age that we think everything that doesn't look natural has to be manipulated after the fact ... photographers have been manipulating during photo shoots for centuries! I like these shots, despite having a nightmare about a zoo last night.

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:12:02 -0800

DO NOT BE FOOLED, PEOPLE. They look harmless, oh yes, but they are all plotting to attack. That's what monkeys do. MARK MY WORDS.

By: RavinDave

RavinDave — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:21:59 -0800

I swear I know someone who looks exactly like this. Whatever post-work she's doing, I kinda like the result. But no one is gonna tell me the tears on this one weren't excentuated.

By: beaucoupkevin

beaucoupkevin — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:22:32 -0800

miss lynmster, why do you have to spoil things for our simian overlords? Really.

By: beaucoupkevin

beaucoupkevin — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:22:51 -0800

lynnster. Dangit.

By: kittyprecious

kittyprecious — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:24:00 -0800

The...New Republic?

By: oneirodynia

oneirodynia — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:28:21 -0800

Okay, monkeys and apes are cool, but at some point I could no longer ignore the dumb anthropomorphic titles. Check Please. Oy Vey. Barfly. Ugh. That definitely increased the cheesiness quotient. I bet the photographer has pictures of kittens wearing sunglasses in her hallway and babies sitting on chamberpots in her bathroom.

By: MuffinMan

MuffinMan — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:35:47 -0800

My vote's for Tim Flach, who got there first and did it better (IMHO).

By: rmless

rmless — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:40:52 -0800

And mine is for Frank Noelker, who takes photos (not so post-processed) of chimps in captivity. The expressions he captures are pretty evocative.

By: Soliloquy

Soliloquy — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:45:24 -0800

The abandoned monkey who has found love with a pigeon

By: RavinDave

RavinDave — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:49:35 -0800

What the monkey was REALLY thinking.

By: CitrusFreak12

CitrusFreak12 — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:51:43 -0800

I hate the way they look. They're right up there with the "LOL I DON'T KNOW HOW TO PROPERLY MANAGE HDR" photos you see on flickr.

By: god hates math

god hates math — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:04:31 -0800

I'll add another vote for the lighting, rather than the post-work. These actually seem, to my eye, to be significantly less processed-looking than the baby set - that set was painful to look at. This one in particular lends itself towards reverse-engineering her lighting techniques - one softbox to either side, one above, and then a ringflash head-on. On many of them there's a light behind the subject as well. Overall, they don't bother me too much. I think the set could stand some editing, though - there's a lot of them, and all at once it reads as overdone. I think there'd be more impact with the best 5 or 6 images.

By: god hates math

god hates math — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:15:35 -0800

They're right up there with the "LOL I DON'T KNOW HOW TO PROPERLY MANAGE HDR" photos you see on flickr. You mean EVERY damn HDR photo on flickr? That's one trend I'll be happy to see die .

By: deborah

deborah — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:19:22 -0800

The uncanny valley.

By: humannaire

humannaire — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:29:12 -0800

Dude.

By: mrnutty

mrnutty — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:55:40 -0800

I believe these are all in book form, too.

By: BeerFilter

BeerFilter — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:58:23 -0800

Wait, what? Someone's gonna have to beat me.

By: billyfleetwood

billyfleetwood — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:59:07 -0800

I'm not sure where to submit my application, but I really want to make sure that when I'm reincarnated, I come back as a mandrill. Not only are they cool lookin' but then I would be able to tell everyone griping about these pictures being possibly digitally post processed to "kiss my red baboon ass". Bitch all you want, but that specific complaint reeks of amateur haterism 101. Love 'em or hate 'em, i really do think it's a stretch to fault the technique in this particular instance. If someone could point out where the artist is using an easily reproduced effect to mask a lack of basic skills, that would actually be interesting input.

By: fearfulsymmetry

fearfulsymmetry — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 12:03:35 -0800

Too much anthropomorphizing. Stuff like that give me the creeps. It's just one step up from this.

By: katillathehun

katillathehun — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 12:09:29 -0800

Too much anthropomorphizing. Stuff like that give me the creeps. It's just one step up from this. She got pictures of naked monkeys being naked monkeys. The anthropomorphizing is minimal. She titles them to suggest a human emotion that matches the face, and our brain does the rest. It's not shoving a monkey in some pants and squealing, "TEE HEE! HE'S ON A TOILET! JUST LIKE... JUST LIKE... HE'S LIKE A PEOPLE, GET IT?" Well, I like them, anyway.

By: BeerFilter

BeerFilter — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 12:27:26 -0800

NO WAI!!! I guess I'll stop now. I think it broke.

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 12:33:59 -0800

It's not shoving a monkey in some pants and squealing, "TEE HEE! HE'S ON A TOILET! *makes note never to borrow katilla's pants*

By: Artifice_Eternity

Artifice_Eternity — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 12:39:49 -0800

About the "anthropomorphic" effect: The Sears Portrait Studio lighting is part of this -- we're not used to seeing animals photographed this way. Also, I'm sure she took scores of photos of each subject for every one that she used. Finally, they look kind of like people because they are kind of like people. These are our closest non-human relatives, and there's a family resemblance.

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 12:56:58 -0800

Which is why they want us dead.

By: Pollomacho

Pollomacho — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:09:04 -0800

How do you anthropomorphize something that is already very much like a human? Are expressions, even those easily recognisable to humans, exclusive to humans alone? These questions, plus, Women That Love Monkeys Too Much on the next Donahue...

By: schoolgirl report

schoolgirl report — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:30:22 -0800

Didn't dare take away the monkey's lollipop, eh Greenberg, you wimp?

By: bonehead

bonehead — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 15:08:55 -0800

Rule 34, Pollomacho. It's how HIV got into the human population, right?

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 15:14:22 -0800

Soliloquy, I love that little monkey holding the pigeon picture. Seriously awww. Love the mischievous LOLMONKEEZ

By: pinky

pinky — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:49:22 -0800

She was in my photography class in high school - and goes on to be a noted, albeit semi-controversial photographer. And here I sit, too lazy even to charge the batteries in my digital camera.

By: CitizenD

CitizenD — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:03:19 -0800

beerfilter, i want to have your freaky simian baby.

By: fuzzypantalones

fuzzypantalones — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:36:52 -0800

somebody give that ape a cigarette. and a hat.

By: krinklyfig

krinklyfig — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:28:08 -0800

Artifice_Eternity writes "The Sears Portrait Studio lighting is part of this -- we're not used to seeing animals photographed this way. " Well, eh, not monkeys anyway. People do this to their pets all the time.

By: BeerFilter

BeerFilter — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:34:01 -0800

One more for CitizenD: U eated?

By: humannaire

humannaire — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:59:57 -0800

WAI!!!

By: BeerFilter

BeerFilter — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 20:19:29 -0800

I see what you did there.

By: BeerFilter

BeerFilter — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 20:29:14 -0800

Drop shadows...

By: The Monkey

The Monkey — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 04:22:14 -0800

The mandrill scares the shit out of me, but at the same time, I wonder if, if I took off all my clothes and lay down on the ground, we'd be able to cuddle? Is there any chance at all that he wouldn't rend me and use my skin as a blanket. There must be some reason he's so scary looking, but maybe it's an act?

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 04:55:08 -0800

IT'S NO ACT. Why don't you people listen? He wants to eat your brain.

By: humannaire

humannaire — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 13:10:56 -0800

It's brain-eatin' time!