The long awaited interview with our very own photographer of the acclaimed children’s book, I’m Lucy.…here’s Marian Brickner!

Bonobo Kids: How did you first learn of bonobos?

Marian: I read the amazing book, The Forgotten Ape by Frans de Waal & Frans Lanting. Instantly, I was struck by 3 things:

1. How did I not know about bonobos? How are bonobos not as familiar to us as chimpanzees, elephants and lions?
2. Bonobos have no documented infanticide (killing of their young) within their species which is a huge leap evolutionarily speaking. Chimpanzees do have infanticide.
3. I knew that I had to do something to introduce kids to these incredibly apes. I had to spread the word.

BK: How did you become a photographer?
Marian: I went to a school in New York called Fieldston, the ethical culture school. We talked about the ethics of every situation. For instance, in kindergarten, we read the story about the three little pigs and talked about things like, ‘Why did the pigs split up? Why did only one pig have access to bricks?’

I went to that school from Pre-K to high school, and my plan was always, ‘how can I do things to make things life better for all people, to be an agent of positive change?’

I loved photography, So I adapted this plan to it, and it transformed some.  Photographically, my mission became this: ‘to stop people from hurting each other’. One of my mentors told me to take pictures every single day to get good. So for six years, I took pictures every day…and I felt great about my skill and I was ready to start applying my mission.

I had this idea that people killed insects because they just thought of them as ‘bugs’, they had no perception of them as individuals. So I began taking pictures that captured insects looking right into my lens. The effect was that there was a face, an individual, an individual going about his/her daily life. I thought that by showing people these images, they could make the leap from insects to people. They would see that just because that person, or bug, doesn’t look like me, they are still individuals and their lives have value.

Coming soon…find out how Marian found bonobos, and most importantly, how she found Lucy!

Help Spread the Word!!!

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