My Family Album: Thirty Years of Primate Photography

The author has made the best of the opportunity to see, record, and tell he has had thanks to his work of many years. Great photographs are accompanied by text written in plain, in the sense of non-scholar, language. Anyone with curiosity about "human" and other primates' behavior and/or a taste for photography will enjoy this book. Seeing the album and some not-very-intelligent recent events makes me think some humans actually represent a DESCENT from monkeys. The book is elegantly presented and diagramed. It seemed to me there were a few "typos", but may be it's because I am not a native English speaker. No big deal any way. I would buy it again.

The book's format is essentially a picture a page, with a paragraph to describe it. There are nine species of primates featured in this book, most prominently bonobos and chimpanzees. There are also macaques, capuchins, and baboons (among others) shown as well. The photos capture candid, sometimes poignant moments, in the lives of our evolutionary cousins. The caption paragraphs often offer a humorous or anecdotal story about the featured primate. My only complaint is that other apes (orangutans, gorillas, gibbons) weren't featured at all, but Frans de Waal didn't do extensive studies of those species, and so it makes sense he didn't have the opportunities to photograph them. The book is what it is, not a scientific work, but more of an art project. I'd imagine kids would enjoy looking at these pictures quite a bit. I know my inner child sure did.

"My Family Album" catalogs 30 years of de Waal's black and white photographs of both wild and captive primates. The bulk of the shots are of chimps and bonobos, but a third are of monkeys and there are striking photographs all around. While the principle effect of the book is to get across the intelligence, complexity and beauty of these fellow animals, there are enough funny faces for the book to work on that level.

Noted primatologist Frans de Waal has put together a beautifully printed pictorial tribute to primates. In high quality black-and-white photographs, he documents similarities and differences among non-human primates in areas as diverse as play, confrontation, sex, familial ties, and social activities. The accompanying text describes not only the meaning behind the pictures but also, in true de Waal form, how they relate to human behavior. Although de Waal is a scientist, this concise and clearly written book is meant for the lay reader.De Waal's specialty is the study of non-human primates in captivity, so the majority of these photographs do not show monkeys and apes in their native habitat. Instead, you'll find remarkable close-ups of expressions and interactions that capture moments of the individual lives. Although de Waal is best known for his study of chimpanzees and bonobos, he includes photographs of macaques, capuchins, baboons, and snow monkeys.This book is a real treat. I recommend it highly for anyone who has an interest in animal life.

Frans de Waal's collection of primate portraits covers various species of monkeys in many social situations. Long hours spent with his subjects means that Waal had their total trust when photographing them. Thus, his subjects have a natural, unforced manner that allows their true nature to shine through. Waal's accomplishment, in this occasionally hilarious, frequently touching, but always fascinating collection of photographs is that he transcends the notion that the value of primates lies in how much they are like humans. His texts and pictures reveal them not as inferior versions of homo sapiens, but simply as @what they are: intelligent, sensitive, highly socially evolved creatures. This is a beautiful and fascinating book.