By Jenn Gidman
Images by Ian Plant
Deep in the mountains of Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park live the gorillas that zoologist Dian Fossey studied for two decades before her death in 1985—a fascinating story documented in the movie Gorillas in the Mist. For Ian Plant, photographing those mountain gorillas was a longtime dream, and he finally realized that dream last summer, taking a two-day side journey to Rwanda during a trip to Namibia and Tanzania. "Rwanda has had a remarkable recovery since the civil war there officially ended 20 years ago," he says. "It's one of the most beautiful, peaceful, serene countries I've ever visited."
The gorillas are bunched into groups scattered throughout the park's highlands, usually with at least one silverback (a fully grown adult male), some younger males (the blackbacks), and anywhere from about 10 to 40 members of the extended gorilla family, made of up various female mates, their relatives, and babies, Ian says. "Every morning, visitors gather at park headquarters, where up to eight people are 'assigned' to each group of gorillas," he explains. "You drive to a trailhead with your guide and other trekkers, then spend anywhere from an hour to four hours going through the jungle looking for the gorillas. Once you find the gorillas, you get to spend one hour observing and photographing them."
For Ian, the Tamron SP 70-200mm zoom lens proved the perfect way to capture unobtrusive, supersharp images. "The range of this lens was perfect, because I was able to zoom in to some of the shorter focal lengths if I was closer, than zoom back out if I was farther away," he says. "Plus the Vibration Compensation (VC) feature and the fast F/2.8 maximum aperture allowed me to get terrific handheld photos in low-light conditions."
Although park regulations mandate staying at least 21 feet away from the gorillas, Ian and the other members of his group were able to get quite close. "Gorillas are very peaceful, nonaggressive animals, and the guides go out regularly and work with them to get them comfortable around people, but the gorillas don't understand park regulations!" Ian says. "In the jungle environment, they're always moving back and forth around you, and if you happen to be standing in the way of where they want to go, they'll walk right past you."
Ian was standing next to his guide photographing a silverback when one gorilla decided to pass by. "He walked right up to us and gave my guide a friendly shove and pushed him over," he says. "I was doing my best to be unassuming and unobtrusive, looking down, trying to seem submissive, so he ignored me. I was jealous, though—I really wanted to add 'pushed over by a gorilla' to my résumé."
To showcase the beauty of the gorillas' routines, personalities, and relationships, Ian aims for a more creative composition rather than simply documenting their day-to-day routine. "I'm not necessarily interested in telling a literal story, but I do like to tell a story about my subjects," he says. "I look for artistic juxtapositions of the animals, postures or poses that create an interesting composition or things they do that tell a compelling story about the animal or reveal an interesting facet about the animal that might not be apparent through casual observation."
And there's always more than one underlying story to these types of images. "I like to tell people that when a photographer tells a story with a photo, there are really potentially three stories: the real story, or what you're really seeing happen in front of your camera; the story the photographer's trying to tell the viewer; and the story the viewers think up themselves when they're looking at the image," Ian explains. "Sometimes those stories relate, sometimes they're really different. I don't try to capture the real story. I want more of the mystery and essence of the moment."
To create these more-artistic compositions, it's often necessary for Ian to try out perspectives that aren't always obvious. "I'm always the guy the other photographers think is crazy, because I might be doing something silly, like photographing a gorillas through a small plant that's on the ground," he says. "But it allows me to tell a better story. For instance, for an image I got of a gorilla looking out from a screen of leaves, the gorilla was on the ground and there was a plant in front of it, right between the gorilla and myself. I got in really close, in the mud on my knees, and found a small space in between the leaves of this plant to frame the gorilla. I was able to use that nondescript, scruffy-looking plant in an appealing way in the photo."
Those often-dense surroundings also made the 70-200's VC feature critical. "Because I was in a jungle environment, there was a lot of uneven ground and it was hard to set up, and the gorillas were moving quite a bit anyway, so I had to handhold my camera," Ian says. "The VC was absolutely crucial here to minimize the camera shake. Plus, that fast F/2.8 maximum aperture deep in the woods allowed me to bring enough light to get the high shutter speeds I needed for handholding. It also meant I was able to blur the backgrounds out, like I did for the gorilla through the leaves."
Being on the lookout for more artistic rather than literal captures also means keeping an eye on the interaction of various shapes and colors. "My image of the baby gorilla staring straight at the camera was actually a picture of three baby gorillas wrestling," Ian explains. "I zoomed in with the 70-200 to exploit what else was going on in that image—specifically, all of those shapes and colors, in addition to the gorilla staring into my eyes. That was the most effective, artistic composition I could relay to show what was in front of my camera."
Perhaps the most mesmerizing facet of Ian's gorilla photography: the animals' eyes. "Their eyes definitely attracted me," he says. "They really are incredible, with so much expression and depth. I had noticed early on that if I caught the eyes at just the right angle, I could capture a reflection of the surrounding green foliage, so I started actively trying to do that. And when you're looking at them—it's hard not to see yourself staring right back at you."
To see more of Ian Plant's work, go to www.ianplant.com.