Resting Gorilla portrait by Sascha Bakker

About "Resting Gorilla portrait"

by Sascha Bakker

About the artwork

The Bwindi national park in Uganda is one of three forests where Mountain gorillas still live in the wild. After hours of searching, we stumbled upon a family of 14 gorillas. I was able to capture this magical moment. This is one of the photos during that trip.

In an open area of the forest, this silver-back gorilla is relaxing. He stares at us inquisitively. He often comes into contact with people so he is not afraid of us but finds us very interesting, just as we find him interesting. It is a special moment of contact, and what is central to this portrait is the eye contact we make with the gorilla. His gaze seems to say so much because we see human facial features in it. But what is he thinking about? Is he bursting with curiosity? Does he want to get to know us? Or is he just wary? Or rather bored? Or does he see us as passing animals, nothing more, nothing less. We won't know but every time you look at his face you see something different.

The gorilla is black in colour, yet you see so many different kinds of black. The deep black in his shoulder, which continues downwards, runs around his face like an L-shape. It frames his lighter face beautifully and contrasts with the deep black of his arm. In his face, you can see the wrinkles around his eyes, sweat on his nose and his intense dark brown eyes. In these eyes, you can see the reflection of the sky and the foliage of the surrounding trees.

The tall grass he lies in hangs around him like and feels like home to him.