The President

2022

As I’ve said previously, when I began thinking about working with a troop of Gelada Baboons for the first time my mind was instantly drawn towards the females and their babies – parenthood is a bond that I love to capture through my camera, but when I met the troop I couldn’t ignore the power and beauty of the dominant male.

He oozed authority and I knew straight away that it would be criminal to leave without taking his portrait. It was relatively easy to find a simplistic backdrop, the difficult part would be waiting for him to pose appropriately. I wanted the resulting photograph to also ooze authority, it had to capture his standing in the troop.

When he eventually moved into position the portrait was captured quickly — he had no problem pulling a presidential pose.