Lowland Gorilla, San Diego Zoo 1989

Volker Seding snapped this photo of a Lowland Gorilla at San Diego Zoo. Look at how the gorilla is splayed out on a pristine white towel, completely at ease, with this giant, textured wall as a backdrop. I'm thinking about the artifice of it all. Seding probably responded to that tension, too. I mean, look at that wall! With its brown and beige tones, it almost looks like a Richard Serra sculpture, but of course, it's a faux habitat, made to mimic nature. And then there’s the gorilla itself, caught in a moment of pure, unadulterated relaxation. Was Seding thinking about Courbet’s reclining nudes? But here's the thing, even though the context is manufactured, the gorilla’s chill is real. Seding captured something essential about the animal, and about our relationship to the natural world. Maybe it's about how we create these controlled environments to bring us closer to nature, but in doing so, we also create a distance.