The Emperor

2018

I pre-conceived this image late last year whilst researching the behaviour of ring-tailed lemurs ahead of a shoot. I wanted to capture a head-on portrait that showed off the distinctive facial patterns of the species.

It quickly became clear that capturing the image would be tough; these animals do not like anything or anyone getting close, especially to their head.

The image would require me to invest time and emotion in gaining the groups trust. Then maybe I could get close enough to one of the members to capture my image.

I finally captured it — they are so iconic, yet so rare.