Photographer Brian Matthews praised for orangutan snaps

Oct 5 2009 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

He lived on a boat for a week off Camp Leaky, where a research centre was set up in the early 1970s.

Coming ashore every day, Brian found the heat , humidity and the brightness of the sun restricted photography, but he seized his chance when a mother orangutan with her baby on her back approached within 10 metres before veering off into the jungle.

Brian fired off five shots, capturing the youngster sucking its thumb and scrunching up its face.

“It was making faces like a human child would and it is this human link which makes people smile,” said Brian.

He returned to Borneo a few weeks ago to carry out work for the Orangutan Foundation, which is helping illegal loggers to stop and take up farming instead.

On his latest trip, he was present when a two-year-old orangutan, which had lost its mother, was brought in.

It was released in a protected area with a surrogate mother – and was named after Brian.

“Wandering around the jungle is an orangutan called Brian – but then he was a handsome lad,” he said.

Brian, who attended Red Rose Primary School in Chester-le-Street, has so far visited more than 30 countries, including Madagascar, Namibia, Gambia, Ecuador, Japan, India, Finland, New Zealand and most of South-East Asia.

His next trip in February will be to Canada to photograph snowy owls.

To see more of Brian’s work, go to www.bwmphoto.com