Sarah Retchin: James Mollison

Mollison is a photographer who studied documentary photography, and is really passionate about the books he produces, but he also does commissioned and commercial work.

He currently lives in Italy. One of his first projects he started was a collection called “James and Other Apes,” in which he photographed dozens of gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans while using the aesthetic of the passport photograph. Something I found interesting about this project was that he decided not to use a long lens, and instead wanted to be more intimate with each primate, as he was struck by their facial similarity to our own and wanted to treat them with such respect. I seem to think of portraiture as more of an anthropological genre, but it’s clear that animals have just as much of an ability to express unique facial gestures as we do.
Another project he recently worked on is called “Where Children Sleep,” and it portrays various stories of children around the world, told through portraits and pictures of their bedrooms. Despite the collection including some photos of “needy children in the developing world,” he wanted it to be more about children from all types of situations and how each of their bedrooms reflect who they are.

“My projects are always series of images, and I think that individual pictures in a way don’t matter that much. It’s when you see a group of images that a passion emerges.”

I watched a portion of this interview of him, and it’s pretty interesting, so I’d recommend checking it out: http://www.vice.com/picture-perfect/james-mollison